


Collateral damage

by NatBBfan



Category: Prison Break
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26322718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatBBfan/pseuds/NatBBfan
Summary: Complete AU for season 2. A short romance with Lincoln Burrows and a casual meeting with Michael Scofield five years ago earn Kathleen O'Hare a row seat to the Burrows conspiracy orchestrated by the Company. A fourth year associate attorney at a prestigious Chicago law firm, finding herself in pursue of the Fox River Eight was not what she had expected as she was finally about to become a partner. Would she be able to get through it unscarred? Who would she have to deal with in order to survive?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable character, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Kathleen O'Hare would never forget the day Lincoln Burrows came back into her life full force, even though you could say that, in a way, he had never left it although they had not been in contact for over five years. A fourth year associate attorney at McCoy, Byrne & Murphy, a long standing law firm in Chicago, that morning she had been formally summoned by the partners and she had been informed that she would be joining them as an equity partner by the end of the year. Four years of hard work and long hours were finally paying off. She was in the middle of an important murder case and welcomed the news. As she had been highly stressed during the last weeks, knowing that she was definitely on the partnership track for the following year would certainly help her prepare the upcoming hearing in a more relax mood. Little did she know that all her life was about to change.

"Hey, Kate," her assistance called by the interphone. "There're some FBI agents here who need to see you urgently. They won't tell me what they want but..."

"I'm already late for my next meeting, Cindy. Collin's gonna kill me if I don't show up right now." Her colleague Collin, a tax lawyer and a partner at the firm, had asked for her help regarding a possible new client she had dealt with before, successfully getting him acquitted from a DUI a few months back. Once Kate had earned his trust, the partners were hoping to convince him to bring his whole corporate business to the firm. Since he owned a medium-sized tech company, the regular fees alone could easily cover half of Collin's team salary. Therefore they had thoroughly prepared the meeting and Kate was well aware that her presence in it was key. "Please ask them to wait and..."

"I already told them you're busy, Kate. They insist on seeing you now..."

"I see. Any chance you can distract them while I sneak into the conference room?" Kate hopefully asked. She knew by experience that those who worked in law enforcement did not usually ask for an appointment, but she would really appreciate if they showed a little more respect about other people's work schedule.

"I don't think so, Kate..." Cindy answered, looking at the two agents in front of her.

Kate sighed. "Very well, send them in, please. And let Collin know the FBI is here and I'll be there as soon as I can..."

She had a quick look around her office. She never met with clients or counterpart lawyers in there. It was just a working place and it showed. Folders, books and binders were scattered on the round table by the corner and on her desk, a white board with information was leaning on the larger wall and boxes were stacked under the table, but at least it looked somehow tidy.

She was thinking that she should return some of the already reviewed boxes to the archive when she heard a knock on the door, Cindy opened it and let a man and a woman in.

"Thank you, Cindy," Kate said quickly raising from her chair and walking towards the pair, a man and a woman. They were tall, both wearing dark suits, his being dark grey, with a white shirt and a dark blue tie, and hers black. Kate recognized his face at once, as she had seen him on the news regarding several important cases investigated by the FBI over the past few years. The first thing that Kate noticed was the way his piercing blue eyes scanned her office as soon as they stepped in it.

"Kathleen O'Hare. What can I do for you?" she introduced herself as she shook the man's hand and then the woman's.

They showed her their badges. "Special Agent Mahone, and this is Agent Lang, FBI. It won't take long, Ms O'Hare..." he said, shifting his attention from the office back to her.

Kate nodded. "I'd really appreciate that, I was supposed to be in a meeting five minutes ago..."

"Well, I'm sure it can wait. Ms O'Hare..." he said, quickly taking in that although it was not a corner office, given its size and the furniture in it the young lawyer in front of them had to be quite important to the firm she worked for.

Kate pretended she had not heard his last line. _"What's wrong with this man? Who does he think he is barging in here like that?"_ she thought to herself, and immediately softened when she noticed the way Agent Lang was looking at him after his comment. _"Well, well, she's clearly interested in him beyond the professional scope... God, I hope I never looked at Jack like that..."_ John Murphy III, a name partner at McCoy, Byrne & Murphy, was her boss and had also been her secret boyfriend during her first and second year as an associate. As romantic relationships between coworkers were not allowed at the firm, they had managed to keep it in the dark until she had broken up with him two years ago. There is no need to say that working for him after that had proved to be a great challenge, and it still was on a daily basis.

"Well, have a seat then," Kate replied trying to keep her good manners.

"Thank you, we're okay," Special Agent Mahone said holding up his hand. "You are friends with Veronica Donovan, aren't you?" he inquired without further ado.

His question surprised her, as she had taken for granted that they were here about one of the cases she was currently working on. "Vee? Well, yes… We haven't seen each other for ages but of course we're friends. Why, is she okay? Is this about her?" she quickly asked back, worry now evident on her face.

"According to her working schedule, you're supposed to be meeting her for lunch in ten days..." he added, first locking eyes with her and then diverting his gaze from her to have a quick look around her cozy office again, noticing the documents and notes displayed on almost every surface, the boxes under the table and the board on the far wall.

Kate nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Is she okay?" she repeated, leaning on her desk for support. She was beginning to figure out that her friend was not okay at all if the FBI was looking for information about her.

"She's been missing for a week. She's missed two court appointments. Nobody has seen her nor heard from her since right before the Fox River Eight escaped from prison..." Special Agent Mahone explained, fixing his eyes on her again trying to determine if the young woman in front of him was telling them everything she knew.

Kate frowned. "And you think it's related? She was working on the Burrows case, she's been for years, but missing court appointments… that doesn't sound like her at all..." she elaborated shaking her head.

Her spontaneous mention of the Burrows case made him think she was not going to hide any important information. Maybe she could be a good source to shed some clarity on Donovan's part in the escape, if she had any. "How close are you two? Are you familiar with the Burrows case?" he asked again, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and placing his hands on his hips.

Kate shrugged. "I live in Chicago and watch the news, we are all familiar with that case somehow, Agent." She did not mention how painful it was for her to see Lincoln's face constantly on the news, and how she would turn off the television as soon as she saw him on the screen. "And Vee was my boss at Smith & Schumman, my very first job when I came back from law school. She's also a Baylor grad, she showed me the ropes of this job... We had some acquaintances in common and we used to go for a drink after work with some colleagues. We became friends and stayed in contact after the firm merged and all the first year associates like me were fired. Apparently we were the weak part in the new equation..." Kate trailed off.

"Was she already working the Burrows case back then?" he asked again, mentally thanking Veronica Donovan's agenda for leading them to this woman, as she was providing them with information that it would have been difficult to gather otherwise.

Kate shook her head. "No, not yet. If memory serves, Linc was arrested a year after that..."

Agent Mahone narrowed his eyes when he heard the way she had just referred to Burrows. "Linc... do you know Lincoln Burrows? Let me be clear here, Ms O'Hare, could Ms Donovan be harboring him and the rest of the escapees? Any place you could think of for that?"

Kate nodded again. "I do know Lincoln. Vee and he have been dating on and off forever, as I'm sure you already know. But Vee helping him and the rest? All I know is that she's been working his case from the beginning... The rest is mere conjecture and speculation, Agent..."

Suddenly Mahone rested his gaze on the board placed on the far wall of the room. It was filled to the brim with photos and random scribbling on notes, very similar to the way he liked to display all the information at hand when he worked his cases. Noticing his attention had diverted from their conversation to the documents and notes on the board, Kate suddenly chuckled.

"Excuse me, Special Agent Mahone. That's confidential and privileged information regarding an ongoing case. I'd really appreciate if..."

"Yeah, sorry. Nice work...' he mumbled running his hand through his long fair hair and fixing his blue eyes on her. The way he kept moving his hands and darting his eyes since he had set foot in her office made her wonder if he was just the nervous type or he was under the influence of a controlled substance.

Kate was not sure if he had just complimented her and she should thank him for it when Agent Lang quickly chimed in. "So you know Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield?"

Kate smiled to herself, thinking that that was also the way Jack and she would work together. He always played the leading role and she was always ready for the rescue in case he needed it, like a protective shadow. She just wished Special Agent Mahone would appreciate and respect his partner's points of view more than Jack had grown to respect hers. Of course it had not always been that way. She quickly shifted her attention back to Agent Lang and replied. "I do, although I've only met Michael once, at a birthday party. And for what it's worth, I'm sure Linc is innocent and he would never hurt Vee, if that's what you're thinking..."

This time it was Mahone who chuckled, like if he had been brought back from a trance by her words. "You know he's innocent... That's a lot to say given the strong evidence against him. You're a lawyer, Ms O'Hare. What makes you think that?"

Kate shrugged. "I'm well aware all the evidence is against him. But I know him and he just hasn't it in him to kill anybody. And I'm sure you know, giving the line of work you're in, Agent, that some people do have it and some people just don't."

The way she had just phrased her thoughts surprised Mahone, as he totally agreed with her on that, and he would probably express it with those same words. He run his hand through his hair again and slightly nodded. "Okay, I think this is all..."

"Please don't hesitate to contact me for anything you may need regarding Vee," Kate pleaded pushing herself off the desk and handing them her business card. "And if you know anything please let me know," she added, fixing her green eyes on Agent Lang while her partner seemed distracted reading Kate's card.

"Don't worry, as soon as we find her we'll let you know. Thank you for your time," the female agent assured her while Special Agent Mahone just nodded and they both turned to leave the office.

"You're welcome," Kate heard herself say in automatic mode as she rounded her desk and took the documents she needed for her meeting. She knew Collin would be wondering where the hell she was and she should rush to the conference room, but she needed a minute to cope with what she had just learnt about Veronica. She wished she had been closer to Vee during this last year, but she had been overwhelmed with work and Veronica had also been very busy trying to find a way to get Lincoln exonerated. A few weeks back they had finally agreed to have lunch together but apparently that may not happen.

Kate took a deep breath and put on her best smile as she left her office and joined Collin and his prospective client in the conference room, all thoughts about Veronica and the Burrows case put aside for the time being.

It was only that night, when she was getting ready for bed, exhausted after a long day, that she realized that she had failed to mention to the FBI agents that there had been a time, more than five years ago, when she and Lincoln had been close. They had been more than friends. She had not hidden it on purpose, and she considered the advisability of contacting the FBI the following morning to let them know, but she finally decided against it. After all, they had only been together for six weeks and a lot had happened since then. She wondered if after everything he had endured, Linc was still the same man she had fallen for all those years ago. What was she going to tell the FBI? That she had once fallen in love with one of America's most famous cons? That she would never forgive herself for leaving him after only six weeks? Maybe everything would have played differently for him if she had stayed by his side... She was sure that the FBI was not interested on that kind of information. _"God, I can imagine the look Special Agent Mahone would give me if I told them all this..."_ she thought as she turned off the lamp on the bedside table, wishing that Linc and Wee were well and safe wherever they were.

Kate did not know back then that, completely unbeknown to her, Michael Scofield had assigned her an important role on their way out of the country, the FBI would eventually find out about it and try to use it in their favor.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Flashback: five years ago.

"Come on, Linc, we're gonna be late," Kate mumbled in Lincoln's ear while he softly kissed her neck and caressed her cheek. It was his 30th birthday, and they were on their way to Michael's for a small celebration. “Just Mike, L.J., his mother, Vee, and us, nothing fancy,” Lincoln had enumerated the prior night when he had asked her to come with him. But at this pace they were never going to make it to his apartment.

"I'm the birthday boy, babe. It's not like if they're gonna start without us..." he amusedly replied, tilting his head back to look at her. "What, you're nervous or something?" he chuckled, shifting back onto his seat.

Kate nodded and unbuckled her seatbelt once Lincoln was back on the driver's seat. He had just parked his beaten-up Camaro two blocks from Michael's apartment and he had started kissing her as soon as he had killed the engine. It was something that happened on a regular basis whenever they went somewhere but today she did not want to be late. They would have plenty of time for themselves afterwards.

"Well, yes, a little. It's not every day that I get to meet your brother, and not to mention your son... I'd like to make a good impression, you know..." she answered, reaching out to hold his hand.

"You're gonna like Mike, and I'm positive he's gonna like you," Lincoln assured her, thinking that she had much more in common with his little brother than with him. Sometimes he found it hard to believe that she was with him instead of a fancy lawyer like the ones she worked with. "And L.J. will love you. And Vee will be there too. Let's go," he added, totally oblivious to the fact that it was precisely his on-and-off relationship with Veronica what had been worrying Kate since they had started seeing each other three weeks ago.

As they walked towards Michael's building, Lincoln placed his arm on her waist and turned his head to meet her gaze. "You thought about the cabin?" he inquired with puppy eyes. He had asked her to spend a weekend with him in a cabin by the lake one of his friends would lend him. "Jake said I could have it next weekend if I wanted..."

Kate smiled as they entered the lobby and headed for the elevators in the far end.

"I... no, I haven't..." she whispered, barely audible over their steps on the polished marble floor. "Wow, Linc, this is a nice place," she tried to change the topic as she looked around her.

"Yeah, it is," he proudly nodded as they took the elevator and pressed the button to Michael's floor. She was well aware that he had raised his little brother and he was really proud of him. "But you didn't answer my question..." he said pushing her against the wall and kissing her again.

"Don't really know if I'm ready for that, Linc..." she finally muttered breaking the kiss, placing her arms around his neck and locking eyes with him.

In that precise moment the elevator doors dinged open. “Saved by the bell, babe..." Lincoln joked taking her hand and strolling towards his brother's apartment.

As on cue, Michel opened the door. "Hey, Linc, happy birthday..." he exclaimed hugging him.

"Thanks bro. Thirty... can you believe it?" Lincoln said holding his brother tight for a second and then stepping back to hold Kate's hand. "This’s Kate, Michael. Kate, this’s my brother," he introduced them.

"Nice to meet you, Michael, your brother speaks a lot about you..."

"All good, I hope... Nice to meet you too, I have to say he also speaks a lot about you..." Michael replied as he led her to his spacious and bright living room, while Lincoln headed to greet his son L.J., Veronica and the boy's mother, Lisa, who were getting drinks and snacks ready for everyone in the kitchen.

"Nice view..." Kate exclaimed, admiring the large living room with wall sized windows that overlooked the river. She was relieved to see that none of Lincoln's friends were there. As much as she liked him, to a point she was not able to understand why as they really had nothing in common, she was not comfortable at all around his friends.

"Thanks," Michael mumbled handing her a beer. "Is this okay? There's Coke, soda and stronger stuff if you want..." he offered.

"Beer's good, thank you" she nodded smiling. It was not her favorite drink by far, but she was not planning on drinking that night, and it would be helpful to have her hands busy while getting to know everyone.

"He really likes you, you know?" Michael bluntly whispered narrowing his eyes, trying to keep his voice down.

Kate could feel the blush that was beginning to creep up her face, and did her best to try and hide it. "I like him very much, too," she admitted smiling at Linc, who had just winked at her from the kitchen island.

"Yeah, I can tell by the way you look at him..." Michael said looking intently at her. "So... Gone with the wind, huh?"

"Excuse me?" Kate turned back to Michael. She had been distracted looking how Lincoln and Veronica were now talking alone in the kitchen, their heads almost touching, and Michael's comment had taken her off guard.

"Your name is Katie Scarlett O'Hare, isn't it? Like in Gone with the wind?" he slowly asked. 

"Actually, you're the first person born after the fifties to make the connection," Kate chuckled. "Yes, almost like Scarlett. My mom's from a small town in Georgia and of course it's her favorite book and movie. My dad said that Kathleen sounded better that Katie for the birth certificate, but at home I've always been Katie anyway. And everybody else calls me Kate..." she elaborated, suddenly feeling more relaxed and silently thanking Michael for it. Lincoln had been right: she liked his brother. He had done a really good job raising him up. It was a pity Linc had not followed the same guidelines in his own life.

End of flashback.

Special Agent Mahone took off his glasses and raised his gaze from the file he had on his desk. After repeatedly blinking he looked at the USA map that was displayed in the common area of the Chicago FBI Field Office through the glass walls of his office, wandering where the escaped brothers and the rest of their gang could be. Of course he was pursuing all the escapees, the manhunt he was conducted included the eight of them, but he had soon come to know that Michael Scofield was the heart and soul of the escape and he was certain that getting him would lead him to the others in no time.

Next to the map, eight mugshots pinned to the board showed the faces of the Fox River Eight. Two of the pictures, those of Abruzzi and Apolskis, had a cross printed on them. They had gotten them. More specifically, he had had them murdered. The first one, Abruzzi, by forcing a situation when he was armed and surrounded by the FBI and the police. The second one, shot in point blank range, plain and simple. This time, it had been him the one to pull the trigger in a secluded location.

Mahone could not help but think of them every time he saw their photos. Especially David "Tweener" Apolskis, a nineteen year old boy whose only mistake had been stealing a very expensive baseball card and then join Michael Scofield breaking out of prison.

Feeling his hands begin to shake, he unscrewed the top of a pen he had on his desk, took two pills out of it and quickly swallowed them, turning his back to the crystal wall to hide it from the staff. He was so used to taking them that he did not need water for that purpose anymore. He hated to think of himself as a drug addict, but he could not deny that. Benzodiazepine, in the form of Veratril, was the only thing that kept him going since he had murdered another suspect, Oscar Shales, two years ago. That crime itself, the guilt that had followed and the sense that he no longer knew where the limits were had led him to lose his family, as he had pushed them away. That alone was unbearable without drugs. But now, with the Company threatening to disclose that crime and murder his ex-wife and son in addition if he did not have all the Fox River Eight killed, he felt that the drugs were not enough to help him make it through the day. The occasional drinking and constant sleep deprivation were not being of any assistance either. He had even lost more weight in the last days, and dark purple bags had taken upon residence under his piercing but tired blue eyes.

During the last week, besides killing the two cons whose faces haunted him from the other side of the crystal walls of his office, he had followed the rest of the escapees to Utah, where they had all headed in search of the five million dollars D.B. Cooper had buried more than thirty years ago. Although Mahone had been near, very near, he had lost them again.

He run his hand through his fair hair, sighed and put on his reading glasses again, trying to focus on the documents on his desk. One of the photos of Scofield's tattoos drew his attention from the rest of the file. It had a different pattern, showing what could be a forest, with trees, and dots and signs inserted among between them. It had to mean something. They were currently working on the data from the hard drive they had dragged out of the river, but in the meanwhile it could be worth the shot.

Mahone took the photo with the drawing of the tattoo and stormed out his office, quickly walking to Agent Lang's desk, where he placed the photo and pointed at the trees. "What do you think this is?" he asked her.

Lang stopped typing on her laptop and looked at it, both annoyed by the interruption and happy to have a chance to be near her boss. She did her best not to show any of those feelings. "Certainly looks like trees to me..." she shrugged.

Mahone sighed, refraining himself from snapping at her. After all, she was his best agent and she had always had his back, no matter what. "Of course they’re trees, Lang.,, but what kind of trees do you think they are? It could be a certain place, a rendezvous..." he trailed off.

She smiled looking at him. "Don't know, Mahone, I'm not really familiar with trees..."

Hearing her, Agent Wheeler, whose desk was right beside Lang's, and was always willing to score points with Special Agent Mahone, chimed in. "Looks like oaks to me..."

"Oaks? you sure?" Mahone asked, looking again at the photo and then back at the younger agent.

"Yes, positive. I spent all my summers in South Carolina, and my grandparents' house driveway was full of oaks, just like those..." he quickly explained, happy to finally have his superior’s attention.

Felicia Lang chuckled. "Like Twelve Oaks, the plantation in Gone with the wind? That's cool, Wheeler..."

Before he could reply, Mahone had already counted the trees drawn on the tattoo. And they were twelve.

"What'd you just say, Lang?" Mahone inquired, his gaze fixed on the trees, the dots and the signs.

She rolled her eyes. "Gone with the wind, Mahone... You know, the Civil War, Rhett Butler, who falls hard for Katie Scarlett O'Hara, who loves her neighbor Ashley Wilkes, from Twelve Oaks. Don't tell me you've never seen that movie..." she explained.

"Don't know, but that name, Scarlett O'Hara, I've heard it somewhere... Run these dots and signs here, see if they could mean numbers or something..." he barked orders pointing at the tattoo.

"Already on it, sir," Wheeler said.

"Try all the combinations with numbers, the trees are not all the same size, probably means a certain order. If you don't find anything, switch to letters and see if..." Mahone instructed. He was finally feeling the tiredness fade from his exhausted body as excitement took over.

"Got a match already for a cell phone number. Let me check... it belongs to a Cathleen Scarlett O'Hare, an attorney at McCoy, Byrne & Murphy in Chicago..." he cockily read on his computer screen.

Mahone and Lang locked eyes. "She lied to us..." he mumbled. "I think Ms O'Hare is worth another visit at her fancy law firm..." he added, thinking that Kate had totally played him. He read people for a living, and she had seemed to be telling the truth. " _Apparently she wasn't_ ," he thought.

"Let me go with you, Mahone. You're tired from the trip to Utah, I can drive you..." Lang offered while Wheeler tried to mask his laugh into a cough.

"No, I'm perfectly capable of running this investigation, and hence drive myself around the city, Lang. In the meanwhile check if there's something related to Ms O'Hare among all the data in that hard drive Scofield thought he had gotten rid of in the river. And reach my cell if you need me," he ordered on his way out.


	3. Chapter 3

Flashback. Five years ago, ten days after Lincoln's birthday.

"So, how'd the weekend go?" Veronica Donovan distractedly asked as she poured some milk into her coffee and searched for the sugar bowl.

"Well," Kate replied, not very enthusiastically, her attention focused on the too modern for her taste coffee machine in front of her. They were in the break room at Smith & Schumman, trying to get their minds off the case they were currently working, at least for a while.

"Well? That's all?" Veronica exclaimed back, turning to face Kate. That was certainly not the way she would describe the weekends she had spent with Lincoln in that exact same cabin over the years. "If I didn't know better, I'd never thought that you just spent a romantic weekend with no other than Lincoln in a small cabin by the lake..." she added.

Kate shrugged. She did not feel comfortable sharing the details of her relationship with Lincoln with Veronica. She was her boss and had also become her friend during the time they had been working together, but the special bond Vee and Lincoln had was starting to highly unsettle her. Kate was well aware that they had been close since they were teenagers, and that they had been seeing each other on and off since then. But their special connection was still there, and Kate could feel it whenever he talked about her or vice versa. Even further when they were together, like at his birthday party, when the former couple had managed to find a private moment to talk right after he had arrived at his brother's apartment.

Having just turned twenty four, Kate had fallen in love for the first time since she was in high school. Back then everything had been easy, as she had known Connor Larkin, her next door neighbor, all her life, and she knew exactly what she was signing for when she agreed to be his Prom date during their senior year. Nothing had surprised her during the year and a half they had been together after that.

But now Kate was having a hard time trying to understand the reasons that had led her to fall so quickly for someone who had practically nothing in common with her. Not only that, he also seemed to do business and hang out with the wrong people, and on top of that she was beginning to suspect that he still carried a torch for her boss and friend. But, despite all that, he was also probably the best man she had ever met, apart from her father. Definitely, it was complicated, and right now she should be focusing on work and the bar examination she was taking in a month.

"It was very good, Vee..." Kate said meeting her gaze and hoping that she would drop it with that.

But of course Veronica did not. "Come on, I'm not trying to pry or anything..."

"I know... But it was just a weekend away, and it has nothing to do with real life, so..." Kate trailed off before taking a sip of her coffee, in an effort to make Vee understand that she did not want to talk about it.

"So it was good..." Veronica stated, insisting on the topic."Your secret is safe with me, I'm not gonna tell him..."

Kate sighed and softly placed her mug on the counter. "Vee, please, can you drop it? I really don't wanna be rude, but..." she begged, trying to keep a steady smile on her face. The fact that she was her boss made it more complicated.

Veronica noticed that Kate's smile did not reach her green eyes. She intently looked at her and totally misread her expression. "Trouble in paradise already? I know he sometimes can be a little..." she sympathetically whispered.

Kate could not help but laugh. "No, there's no trouble in paradise, and that's exactly the problem. I should get back to work," she finally excused herself, earning a quizzical look from Veronica as she rinsed her mug in the sink and left the break room towards her cubicle, where she would be surrounded by her peer first associates. " _At least nobody will ask me about Linc here_ ," Kate thought, burying her head into the deposition she had in front of her, in an attempt to focus on her work and forget about Lincoln, at least until they met that night.

End of flashback

Kate was reviewing the police statements regarding the murder case she was currently working on when she heard a commotion on the other side of her office door. Given that she was seated at the round table, where all the file was spread before her, her back was to the door and she had hardly had time to turn around when she saw Special Agent Mahone storming into her office, as Cindy followed him with an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry Kate, couldn't stop him..."

Kate smiled at her assistant. "It's okay Cindy. Please close the door..."

"You lied to us!" Mahone exclaimed as soon as he heard the door shut, fixing his nearly predatory gaze on her.

"Good afternoon to you too, Special Agent Mahone. Any news on Veronica Donovan, is she okay?"" Kate slowly greeted him, emphasizing this position and his name while she glared at him. The possibility that he might have news about Vee’s whereabouts was the only thing that was preventing her from kicking him out of her office.

He frowned, not remembering for a moment what had led them to question her in the first place a few days back. He had been so angry by the fact that she had lied to them regarding her relationship with the fugitive brothers that her direct question had taken him by surprise. "No, no news yet..." he shook his head, suddenly recalling that she was Ms Donovan's friend.

"Care to explain then? Because I don't lie, and more specifically I didn't lie to you..." Kate quickly added, rising for her chair to be eye leveled with him, as she was not going to ask him to sit down after the way he had barged into her office, no matter how impolite that could be.

"You did lie to us, Ms O'Hare. Or should I say, Ms Katie Scarlett O'Hare?" Mahone asked as he handed her a photograph, his piercing blue eyes locked on hers, trying to gauge her reaction to his words.

Wondering why he was calling her by a mixture of her full name and her nickname (nobody but family would know about 'Katie'), she took the picture and slowly walked towards her desk, on which she leant while she fixed her gaze on the photo. It was an inked drawing, like a tattoo, showing some trees with dots and signs around them.

Kate blinked. _“What I’m I supposed to see here?”_ she thought, suddenly remembering those IQ tests she took in high school. "Excuse me, Special Agent Mahone. What's this? And how is it related to our previous interview?" she replied, placing the photograph on her desk and looking at him.

"You said you’d only met Michael Scofield once, five years ago..." he explained.

She nodded. "And that's true, I've only seen Michael once, at a birthday party, five years ago." The image of Lincoln smiling and joking with his brilliant little brother that day rushed through her mind, and not for the first time she could not help but wonder if his life would have changed had she stuck with him. Had not he escaped with his brother, he would be dead by now, and whenever his picture was shown on the news Kate asked herself if she could have done something to change his fate, totally convinced that he was innocent.

"So how do you explain that your name and your cell phone are tattooed on Mr Scofield's body?" Mahone asked again, briefly diverting his gaze to the photo on her desk before looking back at her.

Surprise was written all over her face. "What?" Kate said, turning to take the photo and look at it again. "All I see here is a bunch of trees and ornaments..." she explained fixing her eyes on his again, holding the photo up in front of her.

Her reaction somehow disconcerted Alex Mahone. He usually boasted to be very good at reading people, after all he did it for a living, and he was certain that right now the young lawyer in front of him was genuinely surprised and had no idea what he was referring to.

"Twelve Oaks mean anything to you?" he slowly inquired, pointing to the trees in the photo.

She shook her head in confusion. "Twelve Oaks?" she echoed, frowning. "Not beyond 'Gone with the wind..."

"Exactly!" he said, and Kate immediately knew why he had used her full name. He was the second person born after the fifties to make the connection (the first had been Michael five years ago). Well, at least she thought Mahone would be around forty, forty-five at the most, despite the signs of tiredness on his face. 

She held his gaze as she stopped thinking about his probable age and focused on what he was saying. "I see. And given that my full name is very similar to the main character in GWTW, you assume that Scofield and I are related? I have to give you that it's smart, very smart, but a little bit far-fetched, don't you think?" she elaborated, handing him the photo back.

Much to Kate's surprise, he smiled as he took it, and his eyes lit up. "No, Katie Scarlett O'Hare. Not just because of your name, because those dots over there form a code for your cell phone number. Has he contacted you?" he inquired, closely waiting for her reaction.

Kate could not help but laugh. "What? My number? In code? On Michael Scofield's body? I'm sorry Special Agent Mahone, but although smart, it all sounds crazy... I didn't even have that number five years ago... And of course he hasn’t contacted me..."

"Yes, it's crazy like everything around Mr Scofield is. Also, you should know that a complete report on you was found at his house, detailing the cases you have worked in the last years and your line of work. By the way, you seem to have an impressive record of wins..." When he was on his way to McCoy, Byrne and Murphy, Agent Lang had called him to let him know that they had been able to extract extensive information about Ms O'Hare from the hard drive found in the river. In the light of all this evidence, there was a chance Scofield had planned to resort to her help. But if she was telling the truth and had not seen him in five years, why her? What made her so special? He quickly made a mental note to ask Agent Lang to investigate her, and to get a warrant for her cell phone. He had a feeling it was going to be hard to get a hold of it otherwise, but he would try nevertheless.

Kate overlooked his last comment (this FBI agent seemed to have a tendency to compliment her for her work) and instead focused on the information he had just provided. "A file? On me? Michael? I honestly doubt that he'd recognize me if he saw me walking down the street..." she tiredly sat on one of the chairs in front of her desk, gesturing Special Agent Mahone to do the same on the other one. This was all overwhelming.

That gesture alone proved him that she was truly surprised. He also sat down, relieved. His hands were starting to shake, and it was easier to try to control them while sitting down. Although he had taken two pills just a while before leaving the FBI Field Office, he was starting to feel the need for a new dose. That alone should worry him, but he was so focused on following the orders given by the Company and thus protecting his ex-wife Pam and his son Cameron that his growing drug addiction was far from being a concern.

"Given the evidence we have, I'd say he'd definitely recognize you, Ms O'Hare. Why would he go to so much trouble otherwise? That's why we're gonna need your cell and all the phone records of that number..." Mahone trailed off, convinced that he should try and get all the information he could from her side now that she was obviously off-guard.

His request snapped her back to reality. "Excuse me, Special Agent Mahone. My cell phone contains confidential and privileged information and I'm not handing it over to you without a warrant..."

"The warrant will take hours, Ms O'Hare. The fugitives might have fled the country by then and I'll do anything in my power to prevent that..." he stated, hoping that it would be enough for her to agree to hand him over her cell. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to resort to other tactics. He was determined to walk out of her office with some information that could lead him to Scofield.

"I'm sorry, but..." Kate said, but was interrupted by the door to her office suddenly being opened.

"Kate, where the hell is that cross-examination you were supposed to...? Oh sorry, I didn't know you were having a meeting here..." A tall handsome man in his mid-thirties had just barged into her office very much like Special Agent Mahone had just done less than ten minutes ago. He was clearly shocked to find Kate with someone there and suddenly stopped on his tracks.

Used to her boss’s lack of good manners, Kate lifted herself from the chair, and Mahone followed suit. "Special Agent Mahone, this is my boss, John Murphy III. John, this is Mahone, FBI..." she made the introductions.

John Murphy III, Jack, stepped forward and shook the Agent's hand. "Nice to meet you. What of our cases are you here for? I hope Kate's treating you right..."

"She is, Mr Murphy. She's being fully cooperative..." Mahone replied, looking back to Kate intently. One of many of his professional virtues was that he was pretty good at knowing when to retreat and regroup for a better chance. It had led him all the way from Infantry to Special Ops and then to the FBI, where he had quickly climbed up the ladder. He was certain his chance to obtain that cell phone without a warrant was now gone with two defense attorneys in the room. "Thanks for your time, Ms O’Hare, you'll hear from our side very soon. Mr Murphy, nice meeting you," he said nodding at both of them and making his way out of the office.

"What was that all about, Kate?" Jack asked as he neared her desk and started looking for the file he had come to get.

"An old case I worked at Smith & Schumman. Just a FBI fishing expedition…” she lied to him, slowly sitting behind her desk. _“Great, and I have just said I don’t lie… But, what am I supposed to tell Jack? That I dated Lincoln Burrows for a short while five years ago, and now his brother Michael has my cell number tattooed on his body and the FBI thinks that he might contact me to help them flee the country?”_

“Those bastards…” Jack mumbled, turning around as he found the file. “Are you okay, Kate?” he asked. She seemed thousands of miles away, staring vacantly at the door of her office. And she virtually was. How had Michael remembered her to include her personal information in his tattoo? Her mind was currently on Lincoln, sentenced to death for a murder she was positive he had not committed, on the difficulties he and his brother would be enduring being on the run, and the possibility that they would contact her. And how would she react given the case? It did not take long to make up her mind.

Kate looked back at Jack, “Yes, I am,” she managed to say, a wide smile on her face. She could not recall the last time she had smiled at him like that, and she hoped that he would not misread it. But she had just taken an important decision, hence the grin: should Linc or Michael contact her, she would do everything in her power to help them. And if that meant that she would have to obstruct the FBI manhunt conducted by Special Agent Mahone, let be it.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Five years ago. The night after the conversation between Kate and Veronica at work. 

"Earth to Kate," Lincoln chuckled trying to bring her attention back to him. 

"Sorry," Kate mumbled, smiling and tilting her head to look at him. They were at his place, watching televisión and cuddling on the couch. Given that she lived with her parents in her childhood house, his small studio apartment was their only possible choice if they opted for a quiet night at home. And since she had to work long hours and also find the time to study for her bar exam, going out was out of the question except for the weekends. 

"What's bugging you?" Linc asked. Although he was quite bad at reading people, as his brother Michael liked to remind him often, he had not missed that Kate seemed to be distracted lately. More precisely, since they had spent the weekend together at the lake cabin. At first, he had been afraid to ask, because he still could not believe that she was dating him and he feared her answer. Maybe she was distracted because she no longer wanted to be with him. After all, she was getting to know him better and the effect of the physical attraction could be wearing off. Or it could be because he had done something wrong during that weekend. But, on the other hand, he was positive he had been a perfect gentleman at the lake, and he could not think of anything she could complain about since they had started seeing each other. He had shared his concern with Michael when they had met for lunch the day after his birthday. "Just have a little faith, Linc, she does like you," he had said. Remembering his brother's words had finally encouraged him to ask her. 

Kate smiled and hesitated before answering his question. A lot of things were currently worrying her. She was certainly concerned about his friends and the circles he moved in, about the current status of his relationship with Vee, about her upcoming bar examination but, mostly, about her feelings for him, which had done nothing but grow since they had spent the weekend at the cabin. Yet she had not made up her mind yet about sharing with him all that, as she was afraid that voicing out all those concerns could burst the happy bubble she felt she was in whenever they were together. 

She sighed, keeping her eyes fixed on his. "Frankly? A lot of things..." she finally admitted.

"What things?" Lincoln frowned. He had not expected that answer and braced himself for impact. 

But she quickly backpedaled. It had been a long day and thinking about her concerns was the last thing she felt like doing right now. "Mostly my bar exam..." she whispered after placing her hands on his chest and shifting to face him properly. 

Lincoln chuckled, relieved. "You shouldn't. Vee says you're gonna pass with flying colors..." 

Little did Lincoln know that he had not been helpful at all by bringing up Veronica's name at that moment.

"Did she?" Kate quietly muttered, sitting down on the couch again and looking back at the television.

Completely oblivious to her current thoughts, Lincoln tried to cheer her up. "She does. She says you're the best first year associate she's ever had. Listen, I'll be out of town for a couple of days working but as soon as I get back we can plan something special to get your mind off that exam..." Lincoln explained, starting to kiss her neck. 

Kate was surprised by his words, and automatically pushed Veronica and the bond she shared with Lincoln to the back of her mind. She turned to face him again. "You found a new job? Doing what?" He had a part-time job driving a bread delivery van, and had been looking for a full-time one since they had met almost four weeks ago. 

He nodded, doing his best to produce a true answer that would prevent her from further asking. It was far from being a legit business but he did not want her to know that. "Yeah, it's only temporary. Driving a truck." It was true. He had to drive from point A to point B delivering some goods on which he'd rather not elaborate. 

Her face lit up. "That's great, Linc. Congrats!" Kate congratulated him before kissing him. 

"Thanks babe. Come on, let me drive you home. It's getting late and you've got some study to do, don't wanna be a bad influence on you," he half-joked as he grabbed his car keys from the coffee table. 

End of flashback.

Special Agent Mahone had rushed into his office as he had come back from McCoy, Byrne & Murphy, barking orders to Agents Lang and Wheeler as he passed by their desks. "Insist on that warrant I asked for over the phone, and come to my office as soon as you have the information about O'Hare."

As Mahone closed the door behind him, he leant on it, taking deep breaths to try and steady himself. He could feel he was profusely sweating and could barely control his hands. It was impossible to ignore for any longer that his body was painfully demanding a new dose of Veratril. Still leaning on the door, he retrieved his pen from the inside pocket of his suit jacket with shaking hands and unscrewed it, swearing and angrily throwing it against his desk when he found it empty. He suddenly remembered that he had taken the last two pills not long ago and had lacked the time and opportunity to refill it. As a matter of fact, he would not be able to do that until he got home, where he kept his stash of pills away from prying eyes in the office. He ran his hands through his hair trying to calm down. He would have to improvise until then. With the possibility of Scofield calling O'Hare's cell any minute, the last thing he wanted now was making an emergency call to his regular dealer and meeting him in a dark alley.

He had just had time to round his desk, sit in his chair and put on his reading glasses, thinking that maybe there was something that could help him in the office first aid kit, which was kept in the restroom, when he heard a knock on his door and Lang's head poked in. "We have already put together some information about O'Hare, sir. Is now a good time?" she asked, noticing the sheen of sweat on his forehead and his tired eyes. "We can come back later if you prefer..." she offered noticing the condition he was in.

His boss peered over his glasses towards her and raised an eyebrow, trying to focus. "No. Let's do it now. Where the hell is that warrant?" he asked as both Lang and Wheeler came into his office. 

"On it's way, sir. It's just a matter of minutes..." she patiently replied. She had gotten used to his changing mood over the past two years, but sometimes she had to remind herself that this grumpy, moody supervisor in front of her was the same man she had helplessly fallen in love with after working for him on the most important manhunts carried out by the FBI during the first years of the 21st century. Regretfully, one of those chases (Oscar Shales) seemed to have taken a toll on him, completely changing him and leaving him as a shadow of what he used to be. At least, the timing of that particular manhunt coincided with his fall down the rabbit hole. Felicia did not know that Shales's body was decomposing in Mahone's backyard, where he had buried him after killing him, nor that visions of him begging for his life had led her boss to start taking tranquilizers in the first place, but she could exactly pinpoint the moment he had started changing, and that was certainly the day they had gotten the last lead on that man’s whereabouts. 

"Good," Mahone drawled. "In the meantime let's hear what we've got about O'Hare..."

"Of course, sir. The fact that she's spent most of her life in Chicago was really helpful in order to gather all this information fast..." Felicia started as she took a quick look at her own notes.

"We don't have all day, Lang..." Mahone complained, taking off his glasses, throwing them on the stack of files he kept on his desk and glaring at her. 

"Sorry, sir," she apologized. "Kathleen Scarlet O'Hare, turned 29 a week ago, Chicago born and raised, more specifically Edison Park. Dad's a mechanic with American Airlines at O'Hare airport. The famous pilot was his father's cousin. Started working there when he graduated high school, and has been promoted various times since then. He's the current chief of the first shift. Mom's a bank teller, works from Monday to Saturday at the branch of Bank of America in Park Ridge. Kathleen is their only child. Straight A student, captain both of the debate and the lacrosse team, earned a full scholarship to UCLA. But ended up forfeiting it when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a month before classes started..."

At this point Alexander Mahone stopped scribbling and raised his gaze to look at Lang. The lawyer he had briefly met had not struck him as the type of person who would put family first. But he had to admit that his opinion was totally biased as he hated defense attorneys on principle and it was hard for him to think that they were capable of good actions. For him all they were capable of doing was getting criminals acquitted. 

Felicia stopped reading her notes and looked back at him, until he nodded. "Okay, go on," he urged her to continue. 

"She attended Northwestern living at home and worked as a part-time lacrosse assistant coach at her former high school to help pay for the tuition her freshman year. She was granted a scholarship the following years but kept coaching. She majored in criminal justice, top of her class, and applied for various law schools, finally choosing Baylor, in Waco, Texas, once her mother was fully recovered. She graduated top of her class again, a year early, and came straight back home. Her first job as an attorney was at Smith & Schumman, where she met Veronica Donovan, who was in fact her boss. As she told us, she was fired along with the rest of the younger associates when the firm merged. She soon found a new job at McCoy, Byrne & Murphy, where she's now a fourth year associate. She's in the track for equity partnership for next year, and has become a key lawyer in their criminal law department. She's worked all kinds of criminal cases, and her success rate at acquitals is highly above the average one in Cook County.... All pretty impressive, if you ask me..." she added, diverting her gaze from her note book to look at him. 

Her last comment brought Mahone back to reality. He had been thinking that had Ms O'Hare been Oscar Shales's defense lawyer, he would have probably gotten acquitted. " _ That's exactly why I killed him, to prevent something like that from happening. I did a good deed, no matter the consequences...  _ " he tried to convince himself, not for the first time since he had pulled the trigger on Shales. He had paid a high price for that good deed: he had pushed his family away, he had become a drug addict and the perfect target to be bribed by the Company. 

"Yeah" he admitted much to his regret, "but where does Scofield fit in this golden girl's life?" he asked. 

Felicia shrugged. "That's certainly a good question, sir. There's nothing that links her to the brothers apart from her friendship with Veronica Donovan."

Mahone shook his head. "But there's something missing here. She's a very good looking young woman, Lang. I'm sure she has a social life, friends, a boyfriend..." he trailed off.

She shook her head. "No, she leads a very quiet life, lives with her parents in her childhood house..."

"A rising star defense lawyer working for a Chicago fancy law firm living with her parents at twenty-nine, who does that in this day and age?" Mahone rhetorically asked in a low voice.

"Apparently she does, sir," Agent Wheeler replied, missing that it was a rhetorical question. "Most of her friends are either in Texas or New York. She doesn't go out. Not even drinks after work. And no known relationship since she broke up with his high school boyfriend and next door neighbor, a... let me see... Connor Larkin, during her sophomore year at Northwestern," he added.

"Sounds like a nun..." Mahone muttered, looking at the notes he had taken.

"She certainly doesn't look like one!" Agent Wheeler exclaimed, taking the copy of her driving license and having a close look at it.

Agent Lang chuckled and overlooked her colleague's comment. "She certainly isn't, sir," she addressed her boss. "No one in the ADA office in Cook County is willing to face her in trial. She's earned a reputation as a tough but fair lawyer. Studies all her cases thoroughly and treats her adversaries with respect. We couldn't get a single prosecutor in the City who'd speak ill about her. In fact, they all praised her..."

"So why is her number and cell phone number on Scofield's body?” Mahone interrupted her. Let me know as soon as we have that warrant," he ordered. 

"Will do, sir."

As Lang and Wheeler left his office leaving Kate's report on his desk, Mahone stretched out his hand and grabbed it. Still curious about the information his agents had gathered, he opened the file in an attempt to be able to establish a connection between Michael Scofield and her. 

As he raffled through the documents and took more notes, he was finding it harder to concentrate on the task at hand, his head aching and his hands shaking again. When he was about to give up and search in the first aid kit for something that would help him get through the rest of the day, Agent Lang knocked on his door again, showing a piece of paper she was holding as soon as she was allowed to come into the office. 

"The warrant, sir. We have it," she said as she placed it on his desk. 

" _ Perfect timing _ ," he thought. That would give him the perfect excuse to take a small detour to his house on his way to McCoy, Byrne & Murphy and refill his pen. 

And the extra miles would also provide him with time to think about how to approach Kate O'Hare. She was the best lead they currently had to Scofield and the clock was ticking. In fact, he had no doubt that Mr Kim, Paul Kellerman or someone else from the Company would call him looking for an update on the six escapees that were still on the run and to remind him of the consequences for his family should he fail to find and kill all of them. They did on a daily basis and he could sense that they were beginning to get impatient about the final outcome of the manhunt he was conducting. Luckily for him, thanks to Ms Donovan's work schedule he had come across someone that he believed could serve Scofield to him on a silver platter. He just had to figure out how to use this card, that is to say, Kate O'Hare, to his advantage. And for that he only needed a dose of Veratril and time to think. 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

"Hey, Kate. A word? My office?" Vee asked as she approached Kate's cubicle at Smith & Schumann.

"Sure," Kate said, neatly closing the file of the case she was working on, rising from her chair and following Vee to her office. As she entered it she closed the door after her. "What's up?" she inquired, mentally reviewing the last report she had written and hoping it was not the cause she had been summoned by Vee. Kate had put a great effort into that report and she had thought she had aced it. But maybe it was time to acknowledge that she was still learning and a degree in Law meant very little once you stepped into the real world of practicing law. After all, everybody you interacted with had also earned it.

Veronica turned around. "Linc's been arrested, Kate," she simply stated.

It took a few seconds for Kate to react. Right then she wished she was there for her report and not for Lincoln. "What?"

"He's been arrested," Vee echoed. Unfortunately, it was not the first time Lincoln had locked horns with the law, so she was somehow used to getting this kind of news, but she was a little taken aback from the surprise and confusion that was written all over Kate's face.

Kate shook her head and narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "How? Is he okay?" she managed to ask as she sat down on a chair in front of Vee's desk.

Veronica nodded. "He is. He just called, Michael's gonna pick me up in ten, we're trying to bail him out..." she explained gathering her purse and her coat while she talked.

"But, how?" Kate insisted, frowning. She could not understand what Lincoln could have done to be arrested and, less of all, why Veronica looked so calm in this situation.

Sensing her friend's confusion, Vee tried to play it down. "I don't know the details yet, Kate, but I'm sure..." she trailed off, shutting down her laptop.

"But what has he been arrested for?" Kate insisted.

Veronica sighed. "Possession, probably intent to sell too. But again, I don't know the details yet..."

"There were drugs in the truck?" Kate interrupted her, surprise and a hint of disappointment in her low voice. She was now standing by Veronica as her boss rounded her desk.

"Seems so... Listen, he's gonna be okay. He's been through all this before, he knows what he’s got to do until I get there..." Veronica said in an attempt to help Kate deal with the evident surprise the news had caused. But unknowingly her words only added more surprise and disillusionment.

"He's... he's been arrested before?" Kate stammered, clearly afraid of posing the question. Lincoln had never shared with her anything like that, and nothing had led her to think about that possibility.

That was when it hit Veronica that Kate was completely oblivious to Lincoln's law record, and she then understood her reaction. Unlike herself, Kate was nowhere ready to hear this sort of news. "Yeah... Let me guess, you didn't know..." she said leaning on her desk.

Kate shook her head. "I didn't..."

"Hey, it's gonna be okay..." Vee said placing her hand on Kate's forearm.

"How can you say that, Vee? He could be facing prison time..."

Apparently Kate was not aware that Linc had already been in prison, either. But Veronica felt it was not her place to let her know. And, least of all, right then.

"Don't worry, he'll call you once we get him out," was all that she said as she touched Kate’s shoulder for support on her way out.

As she saw Veronica rushing to the elevators in the hall, Kate came to the conclusion that despite being head over heels in love with him, she knew very little about Lincoln.

End of flashback.

As Kate came out of the elevator in the parking garage of the building where McCoy, Byrne & Murphy had its offices in Chicago (the firm had recently expanded to LA and Cleveland, opening new profitable offices in those cities), she waved at Tom, from Security, who was doing his round. "Good night, Ms O'Hare," he said. "Night, Tom," she replied as she walked to her car, which was parked on the other side of the garage. It was late and as her high-heeled shoes resonated onto the concrete floor, the thought that very soon she would be entitled to a parking spot near the elevators as an equity partner rushed her mind. " _I'll miss this_ ," she thought to herself.

It had been a long day at work and, in addition to that, Special Agent Mahone's visit had brought back many memories of the time Lincoln and she had been together. Saying goodbye to Linc had been one of the most difficult decisions she had made in her life. As a matter of fact, she had been in love with him for months after their breakup, which still amazed her given how little they had in common and the short time they had been together. She often wondered if being so vulnerable in the aftermath of all that had thrown her directly into Jack's arms.

She had relived all that again the moment Mahone had assured her that her cell phone number was tattooed on Michael's body. On top of that, Kate had spent the rest of the day dodging Jack's inquisitive questions. " _He knows me too well_." Her boss had not missed the shift in her behavior after the FBI agent's visit.

She was deep in thought when she pressed her car's remote key and its lights came on, enlightening the vehicle itself and a dark form that was casually standing by one of the columns in the garage. She stopped on her tracks and was about to scream when she realized it was Mahone, who was obviously waiting on her by her vehicle, his hands on his hips.

"Special Agent Mahone, you scared me. How'd you get past security?" Kate asked, resuming her pace, opening the driver's door and placing her purse in the passenger seat in a quick motion.

"FBI, remember?" he replied, coming closer and flashing his badge at her.

"How could I forget..." Kate mumbled. It only took her a few seconds to notice that there was something completely different in his demeanor. He seemed more relaxed, like if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and it made him more human and less predatory and intimidating than the times he had barged in her office.

As Kate was wondering why she would find him likeable in any way (" _He's chasing Linc, and if he succeeds, he'd be executed soon!_ ", she quickly reminded herself), he approached her and came right under the fluorescent lights of the ceiling. He was clad in a dark suit and white shirt again, no tie this time, but Kate noticed they were not the same clothes he had been wearing earlier. His mope of fair hair was wet, sharpening his features and enhancing his blue eyes. Definitely he looked younger. His head was not constantly moving anymore, nor his eyes were darting around the parking space. Instead, they were quietly fixed on hers. Had Kate been able to see his pupils closely, she would have found out the reason for this change.

"The warrant," he said handing over a piece of paper. She took it, read it promptly, fished her cell phone out of the pocket of her blazer and offered it to him. She was well aware that it was just a matter of time that the FBI would get the warrant since the moment she had refused to hand it over without it, and there was no point in fighting it, delaying the inevitable. Besides, she had nothing to hide. At least, not yet.

The only thing that concerned Kate was that without her cell, she did not know how she would be able to help Linc. " _Well, that's if they do contact me_ ," she said to herself, as she could not figure out how Michael had born her in mind for their escape when they had only met once and she had only been in his brother's life for six weeks five years ago.

"Thanks," Mahone drawled, taking it.

"I'd really appreciate it if I could have it back as soon as you check that none of the Fox River escapees has called my number. You know where to find me..." she said, fully opening the driver's door.

"Not so fast, Ms O'Hare," the FBI Agent said, quickly stepping in closer and preventing her from hopping in the car. 

Mahone started talking as soon as she looked up, surprised, and meet his gaze, "There's a piece of the puzzle missing here, Ms O'Hare: your actual connection with Michael Scofield..."

Kate sighed, remembering that she had not mentioned her relationship with Lincoln when she had spoken to the FBI. Recalling that she had regretted it the first time around, and thinking that if she intended to help Linc she would better be in Mahone's good graces (after all, he was the one conducting the manhunt), she gently closed the driver's door and leant on it. "I told you, I just met him at his brother's birthday party. I was Linc's date. It didn't last, and I never saw him again. None of them, really," she admitted, her eyes fixed on his. "Well, I've been seeing his photograph on the news plenty, but either than that..." she added, lowering her gaze.

"You and Lincoln Burrows? You never mentioned that before..." Mahone interrupted her, leaning on the side of the hood of the car. Her revelation had certainly surprised him. He would have bet that her link to Scofield would have been related to the academic front: college, high school… but he would have never guessed that Burrows was her type. What could they possibly have in common? " _Lang will never believe this_ ," he thought remembering how impressed his colleague Felicia had been by Ms O'Hare's resume.

He quietly kept his distance waiting for her reply in order not to scare her. She seemed to be willing to talk and ruining a chance to obtain information about the fugitive brothers was the last thing he wanted right now. The call he had received from Paul Kellerman less than an hour ago and his renewed threats to kill his family were still fresh in his memory. And the young woman beside him was his best lead, well, his only current lead to Scofield and Burrows.

With his moderate reaction to her revelation, Kate confirmed her impression that he seemed to be much calmer than the prior times she had met him. " _I'm sure if I had mentioned that in my office earlier today, he would not have reacted in the same way_."

,

She crossed her arms on her chest. "I know, and I'm sorry. And I owe you an explanation for that. The conversation, well, your questioning was focused on Michael, and then my boss came in and... Not many people know about that, certainly not him, and I wasn't gonna bring it up then..." she trailed off.

Her sudden collaborative mood and her apology took Mahone off-guard. She was no longer the tough defense lawyer or the new rising star in the Chicago law scene he had interviewed twice already. And apparently she had secrets, too. " _Just like me”,_ he thought. He just wished her secrets were not as dark as his. "I... I understand," he nodded, trying to keep her talking.

"Now, as much as I'd like to stay here to convince you that Linc is innocent, because, believe me, he is, no matter the evidence against him, if you'll excuse me I'd really like to get home. It's late and I have to be in court early tomorrow…" Kate explained, placing her hand on the door handle.

"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible, Ms O'Hare..." he said as he pushed himself off the side of her car.

"Excuse me?" she frowned.

He waved her own cell phone in front of her. "We have reason to believe that Scofield might contact you in the next days. Therefore, we would not only need your phone but we'd also need you..." he slowly explained.

"Me?" Kate chuckled, trying to disguise the panic she was beginning to feel.

Mahone nodded. "Yes. You, in a secure location." Her phone was almost useless to his purpose unless her voice was on the other side of the line when Michael or Linc called. That was the conclusion he had come to on his drive home to refill his pen (and his body) with Veratril and make himself presentable again.

Kate shook her head. "I'm afraid that’s not possible, Special Agent Mahone. I can't just leave. I have a job and ..." How was she supposed to help Lincoln if she was under FBI custody?

Mahone had already gone through all her possible objections in advance, and he had no doubt about the strategy he should follow. "It'll only be a few days. Ms O'Hare. I'm sure your law firm has very talented attorneys who can take over your cases during that time. We'll talk to your bosses," he stated.

"But..." Kate hesitated. All this going public at the firm was the last thing she wanted. Not that she wanted to be in the custody of the FBI, either. But she was running out of excuses.

Seeing her hesitation, he took his time to explain how they would proceed. "We'll take care of everything, Ms O’Hare. And your secret will be safe with us. We won't mention Burrows. As far as they’re concerned, your collaboration is needed 24/7 an old case you worked years ago in another firm..."

Crossing her arms on her chest again, she pushed herself off her car and shook her head, narrowing her eyes. "That's exactly what I told my boss earlier. But I have a family, too, Agent Mahone. What am I supposed to tell them?"

He shrugged. "That you have to collaborate with the Bureau in a case. That's all they need to know."

Kate sighed, letting herself lean on her car once more, her palms now flat on the driver's door. "Is all this really necessary? I lost contact with Lincoln five years ago..."

Mahone felt it was time to break out the big guns. He had been patient and played nice, but there was no way he was going to let her slip through his fingers. His lives of his family were at stake. He placed his hands in his pockets, took a step closer and shrugged, his eyes fixed on hers. "Ms O'Hare, you know the drill. We'll charge you with obstruction of justice if you refuse to cooperate with us. That'd lead to..." he explained in an almost casual way.

"I know where that'd lead..." she mumbled lowering her gaze, finally giving in. If those charges were pressed against her, the consequences could be severe. For starters, she could lose her job. Not to mention the impact all that could have on her parents. 

"Okay, it's settled then. Tomorrow, 8 a.m., outside your house. We'll take care of everything. Only a few days.” As Mahone turned around and started walking towards the elevators, he left a puzzled Kate behind. " _How on earth am I gonna be able to help Linc if I am under the custody of the FBI?"_

Luckily for Kate, she was not aware of Mahone's current thoughts as he exited the garage and the building. On his way to his back SUV he had just mentally reviewed his plan again. He was positive that Kate O'Hare was his only key to complying with the Company demands, and therefore, to his family safety. Once she would have helped him locate the brothers and eventually all the escapees, he could have his old life back. There was nothing he wanted more than that. And if in order to achieve that he had to run this part of the investigation off the books, no reporting it to the FBI Headquarters, then so be it. The idea that he was certainly jeopardizing Kate's fate with that decision rushed his mind for a second, but he managed to silence it. "Collateral damage," he mumbled to himself, as he dialed Agent Lang's cell number.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Flashback. The day Lincoln was arrested five years ago. 

Kate ran to answer her cell phone as soon as it started to ring. 

"Yes?" she said, not being able to identify the number of the incoming call. 

"Hey Kate, it's me," Lincoln’s voice softly greeted her. 

Relief washed over her as she heard him on the other end of the telephone line. "Hey. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am. Michael just bailed me out. We're on our way home..." he explained. He was in the back seat of Michael’s car, wishing he could make this call from a more private place. He trusted both his brother and Vee, and was grateful for everything they had just done, but he would like to talk privately to his girlfriend. 

"What happened, Linc? Were there really drugs in the truck?" Kate asked point-blank. There was no point in beating around the bush when she was clearly disappointed.

Lincoln sighed. We had not expected that kind of question so soon into the conversation, but, again, Kate had very little in common with the women he had come across in his life, except for Vee. Veronica would have also had a barrage of questions. "Kate, I'll explain everything later,..."

She frowned. "What's there to explain, Linc? You knew there were drugs there?" Kate insisted.

"Kate, we shouldn't go over this on the phone..." he trailed off, noticing a quick look between Michael and Vee.

"It's a simple question, Linc..." Kate stated. The last thing he had expected from all this situation was that he would be evasive once he was back on the street. After all, he was the one that had been arrested and had not cared to share his rap sheet with her. 

"I know, but why don't you come over my place in an hour and I'll tell you everything?" Lincoln asked, in an attempt to end the phone call as soon as possible and actually have that conversation with her in private. 

"I'm working late today. I'm stuck drafting a deposition Vee needs for tomorrow," Kate explained, not mentioning the fact that precisely it had been Vee's sudden and rushed trip to bail him out what had caused that deposition to land on her desk in the first place. 

"Are you mad at me?" he inquired, thinking that she was making up an excuse in order not to see him, and panicking at the thought. 

Kate sighed. "No... I'm just busy right now..." she said, thinking that she was just tired and disappointed.

"Maybe we can have something to eat when you're done..." he offered in a soft tone, as Veronica turned to look at him from the passenger’s seat.

"It'll be late, Linc..."

"I don't mind if you don't..." he shrugged, locking eyes with Vee. 

Kate finally gave in. Her urge to see him was more important than her disappointment. "Okay... I'd really like to see you. I've missed you these past couple of days..."

"Yeah? How much?" Lincoln asked, grinning, as Veronica smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

Kate chuckled, relieved to hear that a few hours in lockup had not changed his playful mood. "I don't know... would a lot be a satisfying answer?"

"I think so. I've missed you too, Kate. Text me when you want me to be there."  
  
  


"Will do, Linc. See you later," Kate said before hanging up. 

"She's just scared, Linc," Vee chimed in as soon as she heard Linc shutting his brother’s cell phone. "She doesn't know, does she? Your prior arrests, the time you've done in prison..." she added. 

Linc placed his gaze on her and shook his head. "No, she doesn't."

This time it was Michael the one to talk from behind the wheel. "How could you have not told her, man? She really likes you..."

Lincoln chuckled. "Mike, you've only met once..."

"Yeah... but unlike you, I'm good reading people. You know this could be a deal breaker for her, right? Not the arrest, but not knowing..." Michael explained, looking at his brother through the rear mirror. 

Linc nodded. "I know. But I surely wasn't planning on being arrested again any time soon, so the later she knew, the better. It's bad luck, really..."

"Bad luck? Working for Conti? Really? Was the truck transporting any actual hardware tools?" Veronica inquired, turning again to face him.

Lincoln shrugged again. There was no point in lying to Vee about this, as she was the one who would have to clear the whole mess in court once more. "I think there were actually a couple of boxes of that..."

"Good to know. You know there's a big chance of serving time again, don't you? Minimum five years..." she quietly said, still looking at him.

"Yeah, I know. And I'm gonna need your help on that, Vee..."

End of flashback. 

  
  


Alexander Mahone had arrived early to Lunt Avenue, in the quiet Edison Park neighborhood, where the O'Hares lived. Although he was not familiar with that part of Chicago, it had not taken him long to find the house. It was a beautiful updated brick bungalow with what seemed to be a new front porch and sidewalk, on a double wide fenced lot, featuring a flower garden in the front yard. “ _A nice house to grow up in,_ ” he thought to himself as he parked across the street and killed off the engine, rolling down the window to feel the cool morning breeze. 

He had only been able to sleep for three hours, and tired of trying to relax, he had jumped out of bed and hopped in the shower, even if he knew he had plenty of time to pick up Kate O’Hare. Although he prefered to overlook it, it was a fact that this usual dose of Veratril was not as effective as it used to be, and gaining some sleep had become almost impossible in the last days. 

Kellerman's and Kim's regular calls were not helping either. He had somehow come used to the images of Oscar Shales haunting his mind, but now those of David Apolskis begging for his life as he held the young con at gunpoint had joined them. Besides, Pam sounded strange on the phone every time he called her to check on Cameron and her. He was well aware that he was calling more often than ever since he had pushed them away from his life, and he had thought that Pam would like that, but apparently she did not and, as a result of that, his hope to be a family again was starting to fade. It all brewed in an explosive stew, and the night before he had been on the verge of swallowing his pills with whiskey. He had decided against it last minute, but now he wished he had. “ _Maybe that’d helped me sleep_ ,” he regretted, remembering that he had packed the bottles in his bag in case he needed them in the following days. 

"Good morning. That's a nice ride you've got here. Hank O'Hare," a man in his mid-fifties said, nearing the driver's door of the black Suburban Mahone was in, and thus snapping him back to reality. He stretched his hand to shake the agent's through the rolled down window. 

"Thanks sir. Special Agent Alexander Mahone, FBI," Mahone replied shaking his hand. Had he not mentioned his name, he would have guessed it without a doubt. Despite being shorter than his daughter, he had the same exact green eyes and the same expression when he smiled, and Alex could not help but wonder if his now grey hair had once been fair like Kate’s.   
  
  


"I know.” Hank nodded. “You're here for my Katie, right?" he added.

  
  
"Yes, sir,” Mahone answered. It was not very often that he used the word ‘sir’ when addressing someone that did not outranked him (in fact it was usually the other way around), but there was something in Mr O’Hare demeanor that had made him choose that word. 

“You’ll take good care of her, won’t you?” Hank inquired again. 

“Of course, sir,” Alex replied, thankful that he had kept his sunglasses on. He had had to resort to quite a number of lies lately, and to his dismay he had gotten really good at it, but he felt that there was something disheartening in lying to a father about his child’s well-being and protection. 

“She’s worked hard all her life, Agent Mahone. She’s made us very proud, and I wouldn’t like to see her falling down somebody else’s rabbit hole. You know what I mean?” Hank explained.

“I do, sir. We’ll take good care of her,” Mahone said, wishing it was true. He was sure that if Hank O’Hare knew about his real intentions with his daughter, his reaction would be very similar to his own every time the Company threatened his son Cameron’s life. As he was starting to feel the weight of guilt on his shoulders, he tried to think about something else to say. “You have a nice house, and a nice garden,” he finally added, tilting his head to the building across the street. 

“Thanks. It’s the house I grew up in, and the house my Katie’s grown up in. We try to keep it in good shape so one day it’ll also be the house Katie’s kids grow up in…” Hank trailed off diverting his gaze from the agent to his property. “I’ll go see what is taking so long for Katie to come out. I was nice meeting you, Agent Mahone,” he added, locking eyes with him despite the agent’s shades and shaking his hand again. 

“Likewise, sir,” Alex mumbled. “And she’s not late, I’m early…” he trailed off, not knowing why he would care about Kate O’Hare being scolded by her father for keeping a law enforcement agent waiting outside their home.

Mahone would never know if it was a result of Hank’s words or it was just her being also early, but Kate came down the steps of the main entrance barely two minutes after her father had disappeared into the house. She looked completely different from the previous times he had seen her. She had clearly discarded her fancy lawyer clothes and was wearing blue jeans, a navy blazer, a white t-shirt and tennis shoes, with her long fair hair done in a ponytail. As she began to cross the street, he noticed that there was no trace of makeup on her face. Had he not known who she was, he would have taken her for a college student on break. 

“Good morning,” Kate said as she stood by the black SUV. “Shall I put this in the trunk?” she asked, signaling the duffel bag that was hanging from her right shoulder. 

“Morning,” Alex almost grunted, still taken aback from her almost childish appearance. “On the back seat would be fine,” he instructed her, as he could not currently recall if he had any digging tool in the trunk that surely would arise questions on her side. 

“You travel light,” he added once she had hopped in the vehicle and was buckling the seat belt on the passenger seat. 

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’ll be needing much in a secure location, just for a few days,” Kate said echoing his words from the previous night. “I’m sorry about my dad, I hope he didn’t bug you with questions…”

“He didn’t. He was just being protective. He’s proud of you...” Mahone said as he started the engine and slowly drove onto the street. 

“That’s kind of you to say. Sometimes I think they’d prefer a wedding at Saint Paul of the Cross and a couple of kids running around the house than a professional career…” she trailed off. 

Her comment took him off guard and his next question came out automatically. “You don’t want kids?” From the profile Agent Lang had shared with him, she seemed to be the kind of person who put family first. 

“What?” Kate asked back, surprised by the personal question. “I don’t know… I’d probably want them if I’d found the right person… You have kids?” she inquired in return. 

“I do. Here, your phone…” he handed her her cell phone with his right hand as he kept his gaze fixed on the road ahead of them, turning the conversation back to the investigation, where he felt much more comfortable. His personal life was a mess, had been for the last two years, and the last thing he needed right then was to discuss it with a key witness in the Scofield manhunt, who would most probably end up being collateral damage. The less they knew each other, the better. 

“Thanks, that was quick…” Kate thanked him as she retrieved it from his hand. She opened it right away to look for any work related missed calls. If she knew Jack well, there would be a few from him.

“You’re welcome. There were no calls from either Burrows and Scofield, so there’s no point in keeping it away from you. If they do call, just try to keep them on the line as long as possible. The phone is tapped, so don’t do anything stupid. We’ll take care of the rest,” he instructed her, his eyes on the windshield while Kate looked at him. 

“Understood,” she nodded.

“By the way, your boss seems to be unable to stop calling you since last night. He drove the lab techs working on the phone crazy with all his calls ...” Alex added, this time diverting his gaze from the road to gauge her reaction. He was not disappointed when he noticed a blush on her cheeks. 

“I’m sorry about that. How did he take my,... let’s say,... leave of absence when you told him?” Kate curiously asked, hoping she could do something to stop the bush she could feel creeping over her face. The fact that she was not wearing any makeup would make it much more notable, and she wished Mahone’s shades were dark enough to prevent him from noticing it. 

“Not very well. All due respect, O’Hare, that guy’s a jerk…” he blurted out as he looked back to the road. 

Kate shrugged. She was well aware that Jack was a jerk, but she should not sustain that notion in public. “He’s my boss. I respect him and…”

“How long were you two together?” Mahone interrupted her, slightly tilting his head to look at her before fixing his attention back on the road. 

“Excuse me?” she exclaimed, crossing her arms on her chest.

“I read people for a living, O’Hare, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you…” Mahone’s intention in bringing up this topic was far from discussing her personal life. He just intended to let her know that there was nothing she could hide from him. Whatever it was, whether it was related to the Burrows case or not, he would find out eventually.

Kate sighed, unfolding her arms and resting her hands on her lap. She had gotten his message loud and clear, and she’d better be in his good graces. “Two years,“ she admitted. ”Nobody knows since it’s against the firm’s policy. So I’d really appreciate it if you…”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, raising his right hand, letting her know that her secret was safe with him.

“So where are we going?” Kate asked, trying to change the topic. She felt Agent Mahone had dragged too much personal information out of her in only five minutes. He was chasing Linc and his brother throughout the country and they might need her help, so the last thing she wanted was to feel vulnerable in front of him.

“No need to know…” Mahone mumbled, suddenly wishing he did not have to conduct this part of the investigation off the books. 


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Flashback. The night after Lincoln was arrested five years ago.

That night Kate had arrived home much later than she had intended to. The depositions she was working on for Veronica had taken her longer than she had anticipated, probably because she had found it hard to focus on the task at hand, her mind continuously drifting to Lincoln and his arrest. More precisely, to his rap sheet and how little she knew about him. All that not only worried her, but also scared her. The fact that she was in love with Lincoln was not foreign to her.

Her attempts to slow things down had been unsuccessful so far. Keeping a physical distance was not working, because her feelings were still there despite the fact that they had not gone all the way yet, and Kate knew that that impasse would not last long. Linc had been a gentleman during the weeks they had been together, even at the lake, but that would not last forever and Kate was frustrated, too. She wanted him as much as she was aware he wanted her, but the circle he moved in and his obvious connection with Veronica had prevented her from fully committing. She had known for weeks now that she had to make a decision regarding their relationship, but his arrest had only been the last straw. She needed time to think, but that seemed to be difficult with work and her upcoming bar examination.

That night, when she finally emailed the draft she had been working on to Veronica, it was nearly 10 pm and Lincoln was patiently waiting for her in his car, parked around the block from the offices of Smith & Schumann.

Kate had hugged him as soon as she had hopped in his beaten up Camaro, and he had held her tight until she had tilted her head back and locked eyes with him.

Knowing that she was waiting for an explanation, Lincoln sighed. "It was just a side job, Kate. Really bad luck that..."

Her heart sank. "So you knew about the drugs..." Kate softly chimed in, his arms still around her waist.

"Yeah, I didn't know what it was, but it was pretty well paid so..." he trailed off, looking down and shrugging.

"And how often do you take this kind of side job?" Kate inquired, placing her hand under his chin to meet his gaze, stunned to notice that apparently all that was not a big deal for him. "You've been arrested before..." she cautiously added.

Lincoln shrugged again. "I'm sorry you found out this way, Kate. I was gonna tell you but I was afraid it'd scare..."

Kate let out a breath. "Well, it certainly has, Linc... I just don't know..."

"Come on, it won't happen again..." he mumbled, leaning in and kissing her neck. "I love it when you wear these silk blouses. It's fun undoing the lacing and unbuttoning ..."

Kate gently pushed him off her body and shifted in the seat, leaning against the passenger door. "Linc, this is serious! You're facing jail time!" she exclaimed. But something in the way he was looking at her told her that he had already been in prison. "Yeah, let me guess, you've already done time... Can you please take me home?" she suddenly asked, trying to push that idea to be back of her mind. She definitely needed time to think, and she could not do it with him.

Lincoln frowned, sitting back on the driver's seat and placing his left hand on the wheel. "Home?" I thought we were having something to eat. We can go to my place and..." he offered with puppy eyes, those he was well aware she could not resist.

Kate sighed. "Linc, it's late and I'm tired. I've been worried about you since this morning and I've been overwhelmed with work with Veronica gone for most of the day... And on top of that I have to study for the bar exam. I don't wanna say something I could regret later. Take me home, please?"

"Okay..." he said, turning to start the engine. "I'm really sorry, babe..." he apologized.

"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" Kate whispered, wishing she had not agreed to meet Linc that night. Not only did she need time to think, but being with him only made matters worse.

End of flashback

"Any word on Veronica Donovan?" Kate's question interrupted Mahone's thoughts while he drove towards the only safe house he had been able to arrange on such a short notice without reporting it to Headquarters. All he knew about it was that it was a cottage in a small countryside town, an hour away from Chicago, owned by a former bank robber that owed him a couple of favors. The night before he had assured the agent that it was located in a very quiet area and that he would have it well stocked with supplies for a few days.

"No," Alex grunted. Since he had started taking Veratril he found that interruptions annoyed him to no end, especially when he was starting to feel its effect wear down and focusing was becoming harder, as it was happening now. Which he could not quite understand, as he should not be taking another pill in, at least, the next five hours. He was starting to think that his regular dealer's stuff was adulterated. Better that than recognizing that his addiction was growing by the day.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to... I'm worried, this is not like Vee at all," Kate quickly apologized, sensing that her question had somehow disturbed him. She was starting to figure out that it was certainly going to be difficult to be in this man's good graces. He seemed to be constantly on edge.

Her worried tone dragged Mahone's attention and he momentarily looked at her behind his sunglasses. Her face did show concern.

"You two close?" he inquired, turning his gaze back to the road ahead of them. He couldn't remember if he had already asked her that, but maybe he could fish for more information about the fugitive brothers through Kate's bond to Veronica Donovan. He needed to explore all the possible leads as the clock was ticking and the Company's threats were not likely to fade away.

"Yes. We haven't seen each other much lately, but we've been close since we worked together..." Kate explained, keeping for herself that there had been a time when she had avoided any contact with Vee in order to put some distance between Lincoln and her. Fortunately, Veronica had been very understanding, not saying a single word about it when Kate had been finally ready to resume contact.

"I wouldn't worry too much, she's probably on the run with Burrows..." he muttered, pulling off his shades and gently placing them on the dashboard.

Kate's brow furrowed. "You really think so? No doubt she'd help Linc, she knows he's innocent, but doing something illegal... I don't know if she'd cross that line..." she trailed off, resting her right elbow on the door and turning to look at him, totally disregarding the idea that if she herself was going to help Lincoln and Michael she would be also breaking the law.

"What about you? Would you cross that line for him?" he quickly inquired, keeping his darting blue eyes on the windshield.

An incoming call prevented Kate from responding before he looked back at her to gauge her reaction. Instead, she chuckled as she checked the caller ID on her cell phone.

"It's not Lincoln... It's my boss..." she explained, holding her phone in her left hand and looking at Mahone hesitantly.

He briefly locked eyes with her and nodded. "Go ahead, take it..."

Kate nodded back, thinking for a moment that the blue shirt he was wearing enhanced the color of his eyes, opened her cell and braced herself for impact. "Hey, Jack... I'm afraid I can't tell you that..." she sighed looking out the window, trying to find some privacy in the passenger compartment of the Suburban. "No, that either... Jack... … okay… ... Jack, please... Listen, my phone is very likely to be tapped right now, so if I were you I'd be very careful about what you're gonna say next..." she explained, turning to seek Mahone's reaction. "Okay, I've got my laptop and the file with me, you'll have it asap... Okay, bye..." she finally said, hanging up, and making a mental note to review the autopsy report Jack had just mentioned as soon as she had a chance.

Mahone snorted when he heard her cell phone shut. "A quick reminder, O'Hare: don't let Scofield or Burrows know your cell is tapped when they call," he instructed in a harsh tone.

Kate raised her eyebrow. "I know that. But he's not them and wanted to discuss privileged information on the line and only God knows how many people are going to listen to it. It was my deontological duty to warn him..." she elaborated, leaving her cell on the central console of the vehicle and casually crossing her legs. "Can I ask you something?" she suddenly inquired.

"Sure," Alex muttered as he carefully changed lanes on the highway, keeping his attention on the surrounding traffic. At least he was not driving too fast, and Kate was unconsciously thankful for that. She loved cars, but always tried to stick to the speed limit. In that regard, she had a biased opinion on the way law enforcement agents drove on a regular basis based on her professional experience.

"Why are you so sure Linc or Michael will be calling my phone? I haven't been in contact with them for more than five years... It makes no sense at all..."

Mahone then fixed his piercing eyes on her and ran his right hand through his fair hair, while he kept the left one on the wheel. "Because there's a reason behind all the information displayed on Scofield's body..." he finally responded, and reached for his shades again. Definitely the rising sun was taking a toll on his tired, sleep deprived eyes.

Kate shook her head. "You know, he didn't strike me like a tattoo guy when we met... he was completely different from Linc..." she trailed off, as her mind went back to that birthday party five years ago. That day Michael was wearing a grey short sleeved t-shirt, and she was positive that there was no trace of ink on his arms.

Decided to drag as much information as possible before they arrived at their destination, Special Agent Mahone insisted on his prior question as he took an exit on the highway and slowly began to drive on what seemed to be a countryside road. "So just to know what I should expect in the following days, would you do anything illegal for Burrows?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"He's innocent..." Kate quickly responded, clearly dodging his question, as she looked around trying to figure out where they were heading to. She had been fishing with her father in this part of DuPage county years ago, but the scenery had certainly changed with new residential areas and she was finding it difficult to orientate herself while Mahone kept asking questions.

This time it was Alex the one who chuckled. "See, coming from someone who's slept with him that statement doesn't mean much..." he retorted. He could not stand it when people blatantly lied to him, and the lack of sleep and the Veratril wearing off his system were making him cranky. He knew his comment was out of line as soon as the words came out of his mouth, but instead of apologizing he waited for her reaction.

Kate snorted, feeling a fierce blush on her cheeks. "Not that's any of your business, but since you brought it up and you seem to know all about Lincoln, let me inform you that I never slept with him..." Like Mahone a few seconds before, Kate knew those words should have never left her mouth as she heard them. She was giving away too much personal information to someone whose current goal was to hunt down Linc and bring him back to the death row.

He frowned as he parked the black SUV at the end of a rarely traveled one block street, in front of a cozy vintage stucco house. "You said you dated him..." he muttered, stopping the engine and turning to face her behind his sunglasses.

"I did. For six weeks. Do all your dates involve sex, Special Agent Mahone?" Kate retorted. This man really irritated her.

Alex laughed at her question. It was the first time Kate heard him laugh, and she wondered if he was making fun of her or just found the topic funny. "Yes, since my junior high school year..." he said in a cocky way. "Let's go inside, Agent Lang will be here in a few minutes," he added, opening the driver's door and hopping out of the Suburban.

"Well, I can't really understand what they see in you... You're something else, Mahone," Kate mumbled under her breath as she exited the vehicle, wondering how on earth she was going to be able to help Linc if her phone was tapped and she was in the middle of nowhere under the custody of a cranky, grumpy, moody, bossy and cocky FBI Special Agent.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

The inside of the house in DuPage Country truly surprised Kate as she followed Mahone through the front yard and stepped in after he unlocked the red painted door. Wooden walls, thick carpets, an open gourmet kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a floor-to-ceiling fireplace, it certainly looked like a luxury cabin prepared to provide the amenities of a five-star vacation.

She had barely placed her duffel bag beside the couch in the living room, when she heard the agent's voice.

"These are the rules, O'Hare. No going out, not even to the back patio, and no standing near the windows. Understood?" he almost grunted, pitching his nose. He was already feeling tired and the day had just started.

"Loud and clear," Kate said, looking around her, suddenly feeling like a prisoner instead of a possible witness. That house had nothing to do with the safe houses she had come across in the five years she had been working as a defense lawyer. Whoever owned this place had spent a lot of money to turn it into a modern and cozy accommodation, and that was something the Federal Government would never care to do regarding its safe houses.

"Good," he drawled. "There should be enough supplies for at least a week. Questions?" he asked, finally turning to face her from beside the kitchen counter, his blue piercing eyes scanning her.

"Any chance I could go out for a quick run in the morning?" Kate hesitantly asked, trying to gauge the real level of captivity, more than custody, that she would be experiencing during the following days. She hoped it would not be for too long, but it all would depend on the moment the escaped brothers would call her, if they actually called, or worse, if they were apprehended by the FBI. The latter would mean Linc going back to the death row, and she preferred not to consider that possibility. During the ride from Chicago she had come to wish that they would contact her soon. First, because that way she would be in a position to help them, if there was any way she could, and second, because the sooner they made contact, the sooner she could go back to her life. At least that was what she presumed. And she really liked her life. Despite most of her friends, who all apparently led thrilling lives in New York, Boston and Dallas, usually mocked her about it, insisting that she had no social life at all, she really enjoyed the life she had built for herself since she had come back from Baylor five years ago. Spending time with her parents at home, going fishing and golfing with her dad and assisting coach her former high school lacrosse team during the season were the perfect counterbalance to the long hours, even on the weekends, that she devoted to her job.

"No, no going out at all..." Alex drawled, walking past her towards the door without even looking at her.

"But it'd only be..." Kate started complaining. Exercising was the only way she was able to deal with stress. It had been like that since she had been in high school and she was wondering the effects that the continued lack of exercise could have on her if she had to stay in that house for more than a couple of days.

"No buts, O'Hare..." he retorted as he reached the front door and turned around, his eyes nervously darting around the living room.

"Kate, you can call me Kate," she said, sensing that it was likely she was going to become a prisoner in that splendid house. "If I'm going to be stuck here with you 24/7 for the next few days I think we could move onto first names..." she added, raising her right eyebrow and locking eyes with him.

"O'Hare is fine by me," he stated, finally meeting her gaze. "Don't hesitate to ask Agent Lang for anything you may need. Important things, not going for a run..." he explained in a harsh tone before opening the door and closing it behind him.

Kate sighed, relieved. The more she interacted with Mahone, the more irritating she found him. Yet she had liked Agent Lang the day they had barged into her office looking for information about Vee.

"Okay," she took her duffel bag and headed for what seemed to be the master bedroom. The room surprised her again. " _ Whoever owns this house has a very good taste _ ," she thought to herself, taking in the mahogany furniture, the stone and marble architecture, the top-notch linens and in-home technology, and the size of the room itself. " _ All the bedrooms in my house could fit in here. _ " 

A few minutes later Agent Lang walked through the front door, wearing a dark blue suit and carrying with her a heavy stack of files. She placed them on the couch and started sorting them out. If she was surprised by the house, she did not show it.

"Good morning, Ms O'Hare," she politely addressed Kate when she heard steps in the bedroom.

"Morning. You can call me Kate, unless you are not into first names like your boss..." she responded as she came into the living room again, a binder and her laptop under her right arm.

Agent Lang chuckled. "No, it's alright, Kate. I'm Felicia, by the way..."

"Thanks Felicia," Kate nodded as she placed her laptop on the big mahogany table that sat in the far corner of the living room, away from the windows, and opened the folder in front of her.

They both spent most of the morning working, Kate reviewing the autopsy report Jack had mentioned earlier on, and Agent Lang doing some paperwork she had never found the time to do while she was in the office.

"Felicia, can I ask you something?" Kate inquired out of the blue, turning on the chair she was sitting to face the agent, breaking the quiet atmosphere in the house.

"Of course..." Felicia replied, mentally thanking her for the distraction. She really hated redtape, although it was not so bad if you had the chance to do it sitting on a very comfortable couch in a cozy and luxury living room away from the chaos of the common room in the Chicago FBI field office.

"Is this standard procedure?" Kate asked, resting her right arm on the back of the chair.

"What do you mean?" Agent Lang asked back, diverting her attention from the papers she had on her lap to the farther end of the living room, where Kate was sitting.

"All this..." Kate said, raising her hands in front of her. "This is the kind of place where you'd bring your witnesses?"

"No, of course not," Felicia replied, thinking carefully about her next words. Mahone had asked for her help in keeping Kate O'Hare off the books, without reporting her custody to Headquarters, at least for the time being. "Trust me on this, Lang. She won't be of any use for us if we have to waste our valuable time reporting every move we make," he had practically begged with those puppy eyes she had not been able to resist since she had hopelessly fallen in love with him. It was at times like these when she wondered if he knew, and if he used it to his own advantage. 

Kate shrugged, totally oblivious to Lang’s current thoughts. "So why are we here? Should I be worried?" she inquired again, fixing her eyes on Felicia, hoping that the agent would tell her the truth.

Lang shook her head, having made up her mind about how to address the issue. "No, not at all. This is not just a regular case, Kate. This is the most important manhunt carried out by the FBI in the last twenty years, and you are a key witness. Special Agent Mahone doesn't want to risk the investigation..." Felicia explained, relieved because she was not lying at all.

Kate frowned, not understanding what Felicia was saying. "Why'd the investigation be at risk if I were in a regular safe house?"

Felicia shrugged. "I can think of a few reasons. First, time is of the essence here. Plus he wants you to be as comfortable as possible..."

Kate snorted, focusing on the last part of the agent's line and momentaneously not realising that Lang had implied that in order to get her into custody as fast as possible Mahone had avoided the usual channels. "He certainly doesn't make me feel comfortable every time he grunts..."

Lang perfectly understood what Kate meant. She had been on the receiving end of Alex's grunts more times than she liked to remember. It was a fact that her boss had turned into someone very difficult to interact with during the last year and a half. "Don't take it personally. He's a kind, good man but..."

"Well, he does hide it well..." Kate could not help but snort once more.

"He's under a lot of pressure... and this is a hard job... we see things that..." Lang trailed off, trying to justify Mahone's demeanour.

"I think every law enforcement agent works under a lot of pressure, Felicia..." Lang's defense of Mahone was commendable, but Kate could tell her opinion was biased. She had figured out the way she felt about him the very first time she had seen them work together. 

"It certainly takes a toll on us, even on the best ones. And he's the best agent I've ever worked for, and, believe me, some of my former bosses are very good at what they do. But Mahone's the best by far..." Lang praised him, hoping again that she was not revealing too much. She hoped Kate was too distracted by her current situation to notice it.

"Is he really that good?" Kate asked, thinking that if he was, the chances she had to play him if Lincoln called were really slim. That thought alarmed her. " _ What am I doing here if I can't help Linc in any way? _ " she asked herself, hoping she had never agreed to be in custody of the FBI. " _ Maybe I would have been able to fight the eventual obstruction of justice charges... Even Jack could've helped if I’d come clean... _ " She turned her attention back to Felicia, anxiously waiting for her reply.

Lang nodded, trying to hide her feelings again. "He is, and he's a good person. Don't let his changing mood and apparent coldness fool you..." she finally explained.

"I'll try to bear that in mind the next time he growls..." Kate said as she turned around and looked at the screen of her laptop, trying to concentrate on the autopsy report she had in front of her. She was about to review it for the third time that day, because she found it to be completely inconsistent with her client's version of the night of the murder. He had repeatedly claimed that he had acted in self defense, but the wounds described in detail in the report clearly said otherwise. And Jack was anxiously waiting for her comments according to the three emails she had received from him since she had arrived in DuPage.

Despite spending the whole day indoors, Kate had the sensation that time had flown when she bidded Felicia good night. She was reading again the autopsy report that had been bugging her all day when she heard the front door open and close. Agent Lang had explained to her earlier that for the time being she and Mahone would take turns to be in the house, and that he would take over at night.

Not thinking about it twice, Kate got up from the bed, took the binder with her and opened the door to the living room, just in time to see Mahone's back as he leant on the coffee table to have a look at the folders Lang had neatly left there.

"Hey. Any word on Veronica Donovan? Agent Lang said you'd know if there's something new..." Kate softly asked as she stood by the door to the bedroom.

"Nothing. Does the name Nick Savrinn ring any bell?" Mahone replied, not even bothering to turn around and face her.

Kate frowned. "Savrinn? No, why?" she asked back, suddenly having a bad feeling about that name.

"Apparently he's been working with Ms Donovan on the Burrows case," he said, deliberately choosing not to share with her that he had been found dead, with a bullet to his head, alongside his father. He needed Kate focused for the moment the escaped brothers called. Even more, in the now likely event that Ms Donovan would also be found dead, he intended not to tell O'Hare, at least before Scofield and Burrows contact her.

"I'm sorry, his name isn't familiar at all,' Kate shook her head, her frown still burrowing. "Can I ask you a favor?" she added, trying to get rid of the bad feeling she had about Vee. Her question and the tone in which she had posed it finally made Alex raise his blue gaze to meet hers.

He narrowed his tired eyes, and took in that she was still clad in the same jeans, white shirt and tennis shoes that she had been wearing that morning, and she looked even younger without the blazer. Almost vulnerable. Seeing her there made it difficult to picture her as the tough and well respected defense lawyer he knew she was, and it automatically triggered his soft side, hence his comment. "It's still no to the run..." he muttered.

A hint of a smile crossed her face. "I know, you made that very clear... No, it's professional," she replied as she looked at the binder she was holding, and then back at him. "It's the murder case I'm currently working on. I'm having a hard time trying to match the autopsy report with our client's statements. I know you've got a lot on your plate, but maybe you could use a distraction from the Eight River Fox case and have a look? I'd really appreciate it, sir," she politely added, proposedly adding the word 'sir'.

"You should probably ask Lang, she'll be here in the morning..." he automatically responded, wishing that his head could only be focused on the manhunt itself, like any other random case he had worked for the last decade and a half, aside Shales, of course, and not on the way Kellerman had just threatened him again on the phone during his drive from Chicago.

Kate nodded, holding the file in front of her, and wondering if she should just turn around and forget about the other agent's advice. "I already did, and she said I should ask you, adding that you're the best agent she's ever known..." she dared to explain at last.

The mention of Lang's words seemed to soften him. Mahone briefly thought about mentioning something about confidential and privileged information, but he was too tired and too eager for a dose of Veratril to banter. "Okay," he finally agreed, stepping in and taking the file from her hands.

"Thanks. There's homemade lasagna in the oven if you want some, we saved you a plate..." Kate shyly trailed off, before turning to head for the bedroom.

"You cooked?" Alex asked, surprised, looking at her again, diverting his eyes from the file she had just handed him to her retreating figure.

Kate turned around and shrugged. "Yeah. There's plenty of food and plenty of time. Good night," she said and walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

"Night..." Mahone drawled. Certainly the homemade lasagna was tempting. He could not remember the last time he had eaten something that involved actual cooking and not just tossing it into the microwave oven, probably the day before Pam had finally left their house after his insistent requests. But the urge for a dose of Veratril made him forget about the lasagna for a moment and fish out his pen from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He had just made a huge effort to control his hand from shaking when he had grabbed O'Hare's file. Tonight's call from Kellerman had been worse than ever. The Company was not very happy about the progress made in the Eight Fox River case, and he had been given 24 hours to show them that he was actually capable of moving the case forward in the way they wanted (that is to say, all the former prisoners had to die). In that moment he had panicked and in order to buy him, and even more, Pam and Cameron, some time, he had disclosed to Paul the existence of Kate O'Hare and how she could play a key role in leading him to Burrows and Scofield in the short term.

Now he regretted it. " _ I should've kept it under wraps so far. _ " At least he had not revealed her name or any of her personal details, but that would not stop the Company from looking for her if he did not get the brothers soon. He could not disregard the fact that he was indeed running out of time, and what was even worse, out of leads. O'Hare was his only possible lead to Lincoln and Michael, but so far they had not contacted her. While he was waiting for that call to happen, he had hoped to have ‘good news' for the Company by now, as he had expected to have Benjamin Miles “C-Note” Franklin in custody by the end of today. He was reuniting with his family, but they had been able to avoid the FBI surveillance and were on the run again. 

Now that the tensión of the day was starting to wear off, Mahone blamed himself for assigning Agent Lang to play house with O'Hare instead of letting her lead the surveillance team. After that fiasco, their best chance to trace them was to take advantage of their little girl's medical condition, because they would have to get a prescription and buy her medicine sooner or later. And that thought alone made Alex sick. " _ When did I become unable to tell right from wrong _ ?" he wondered as he quickly swallowed two pills and then looked at the closed master bedroom door. 

For some strange reason his exhausted mind could not register, he wished he could keep Kate O'Hare away from his horse-trading with the Company. Too many innocent people were already in harm's way, including his own family. Little did he know by then that things were just about to get much more complicated for everyone very soon.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

It was past 6 am when Kate woke up. When she slowly opened her eyes, it took her a few seconds to finally register where she was. Definitely this was not her bedroom at home, in Edison Park, nor her dorm at Baylor. She suddenly remembered: " _DuPage County, FBI, ... Linc…"_ and her heart skipped a bit as she wondered if he would be okay. Of course that was a rhetorical question, because you can never be well if you are on the run with a death sentence over your head. " _At least he's with Michael, I hope they're still together..."_ Kate thought, trying to find some comfort in the fact that he was not alone. Not only that, she doubted Lincoln would choose anyone else to start a new life. Not even Vee despite their on and off relationship since they had been in high school. Because if he had not changed in these last five years, she would say that he had not escaped from prison and have his little brother involved in the whole process to go back to his old ways. And she was sure Michael would be his choice for that.

She finally stirred, got up from the king sized bed and padded to the en-suite bathroom. It was a quarter past six when she quietly opened the door to the living room, fully dressed in black jeans, a light blue shirt and sneakers, her wavy fair hair down. She did not expect to find Mahone already working on the kitchen counter, clad in a dark grey suit and white shirt, his hair still wet from the shower.

"Good morning," Kate said, trying not to startle him. Little did she know that thanks to his surveillance skills he had being noticing her movements in the bedroom since she had been up.

"Morning," Mahone responded without even bothering to turn around to face her. "We're off to Wisconsin. Can you be ready in five?" he asked, closing the file he had been working on.

His question caught her by surprise. "Ready in five? I'm already ready", she replied, frowning.

Her response made him finally lift himself from the stool he was sitting on and turn around to look at her. "I see," he appreciatively nodded.

"Wisconsin? Can I ask why?" Kate inquired, ignoring his comment, as nobody had mentioned anything about leaving the house the day before.

Mahone hesitated before answering. He did not owe her any explanation, but he was well aware that her situation was irregular, to say the least, and she probably was not counting on leaving the house until she went back home. "Agent Lang's stuck in Chicago and I'm needed in Wisconsin," he finally elaborated. "There's fresh coffee, and toast, if you want some..." he added in a low voice.

"Thanks," Kate obliged, and walked over to the kitchen to grab a mug from the cabinet. She then remembered Felicia's words about him being a kind person." _This must be a demonstration of that.._." she thought to herself.

He shrugged. "I know it's not lasagna, but..." His eyes darted around the living room, finally fixing on her, and he slowly nodded again. "You're welcome."

"Do I need to pack?" Kate asked while she opened the fridge for the milk, wondering if she was supposed to follow him or any other FBI agent around while they were chasing the Fox River Eight, or if this was just a onetime thing.

"No, we'll be back in a few hours. Do bring your cell. I'll be waiting in the car. Lock the door when you're done," he instructed leaving the key on the kitchen counter and grabbing some files from the coffee table as he made his way to the front door.

"A please now and then would be nice," Kate muttered, her previous thoughts about Lang's words totally forgotten, before drinking her coffee, quickly rinsing the mug in the sink and running to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

When she hopped in the black SUV exactly four minutes later, Mahone was already behind the wheel, holding the binder she had given him the night before.

"You're right about your case..." he started saying, waiting for her to buckle up before handing it over.

"You'd a chance to look at it? Thank you!" Kate exclaimed, extending her left hand to hold the binder, and softly placing it on her lap. She then wondered how he had managed to eat, review her case, work on his own case, get some sleep, make breakfast and be ready, wearing a perfectly ironed suit, by six in the morning. Because from where she was sitting he did look rested, and younger than the prior days. The small wrinkles around his eyes and the purple shadows under them were nowhere to be found. In fact, they were bluer than ever, if that was even possible. She did her best not to stare.

"Yeah, and you're right, he's lying. Nothing in any of his statements adds up. According to the autopsy, he wanted to kill her, and given the weapon he used to infringe the worst wounds, he might've been planning on it for sometime..." he explained as he started the engine and reversed the SUV onto the street. "Your notes were accurate. I took the liberty to write mine on the margins," he added, raising his eyebrows to point at the binder in her lap.

"Thank you," she said again, now frowning. Mahone had just confirmed what she had been suspecting since she had first met her client when he had been arrested: he had lied from the beginning. But whenever Kate had voiced out her concern, Jack had played it down, remembering her that it was their job to defend him and that his father's corporate business was one of the top accounts in the firm.

Her frown did not go unnoticed by Alex."Is there a problem?" he inquired, sensing her concern. He was currently high on tranquilizers, but still could read people.

"Yeah, as soon as I let my firm know that his lying and I don't want to be on the case..." she trailed off.

"I thought that all you lawyers are happy to do your job no matter if the defendant is guilty or not..." he explained, his blue gaze fixed on the windshield.

"Well, we lawyers are not all the same," Kate retorted, stressing the words 'we lawyers'. "Not by far..."

"What about 'everyone is entitled to the best possible defense', and all that?" Mahone inquired. You'd be amazed to know how many killers have walked out because that shit," he said, thinking, not for the first time, that he had made sure that Oscar Shales would not, and shortly diverting his attention from the traffic ahead of them to glare at her.

Kate snorted, placing her right elbow on the passenger door and resting her head on his hand. "Between you and me, Mahone?"

He briefly looked at her again and silently nodded.

Kate slightly shook her head. "I don't believe in that," she stated. "I do believe though that everyone has a right to a fair trial. But if someone murders in cold blood I'm not the one defending him or her..."

"Let me guess, your boss doesn't agree..." Alex mumbled, his thumbs impatiently tapping on the steering wheel as he drove.

"No, he doesn't, we've been down this road before..." she muttered while she looked out the window, suddenly feeling very exposed for sharing something so personal with an individual she barely knew, and whose main current goal was to apprehend Lincoln to bring him back to the death row. Had she known that Mahone's real current goal was to kill Linc and the rest of the escapees, she would have probably felt much worse.

"So where are we going in Wisconsin, if I may ask?" Kate inquired, fixing her gaze on his profile, hoping for a change of subject.

"Argoma", he drawled, without any further explanation. Former Fox River guard Bradley Bellick had called him early that morning to let him know that he had tracked down Charles 'Haywire' Patoshik, one of the Fox River Eight. Mahone had ordered him to keep a close eye on the con until he arrived, and had rushed to get ready as quickly as possible. Not only had he gotten ready, but he had also gotten high enough on Veratril to silence the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him " _Are you gonna kill ‘Haywire’, too?"_ Because nothing had changed since the day before: he had to follow the Company's orders, which were very clear: they all have to die, 'Haywire' included.

Something in his facial expression as he recollected the Company threats made Kate think that Special Agent in charge Mahone was not feeling well. "Are you okay? You wanna me to drive?" she offered, concerned.

But her offer only brought back the grumpy, moody and bossy Mahone she had almost forgotten about during the last minutes. "I'm fine. Silence'd would be highly appreciated," he grunted. That little voice in his head was also screaming that he should not be driving under the influence of Veratril, but he managed to silence it.

"Of course," she whispered, her words nearly inaudible, as she opened the file that was sitting on her lap and started reviewing her own notes and the ones scribbled by Mahone.

By the time she finished reading all the reports and notes she noticed that they were coming to a stop in the outskirts of a small town. Several police cards and an ambulance were parked around a grain elevator, where she could see a young man leaning dangerously on the rail atop.

Mahone killed the engine and looked at Kate for the first time in an hour and a half. "Stay in the car, and put this on," he said, reaching for the back seat and pulling a bullet-proof vest.

"You have to be kidding me..." Kate snorted.

"I'm not. That man up there could be armed. Vest up and stay in the car till I come back," he instructed, exiting the vehicle before she had the chance to protest again.

Kate spent more than three hours in the SUV. She was glad that she had thrown her lap top in her purse on her way out of the house in DuPage, and at least she had been able to work during that time. She also had a couple of tense conversations with Jack. As she had predicted, he did not take well her reservations to be on the case, not at all, and noticing that she was far from changing her mind despite all the reasoning he was doing, he finally ended up threatening her to paralyze her partner track if she did not reconsider her position.

Under other circumstances, Kate would have actually worried about Jack's threat, and probably would have asked him not to do that. This had happened before, and at that time it had worked. "Kate, nobody is gonna take you seriously here if you start picking defendants over conscience issues..." Jack had advised her back then. "I'll make them take me seriously, don't worry about that. But please take me off the case, Jack," she had requested. As a result of that conversation, Kate had been assigned another relevant case overnight, but she suspected that the fact that back then Jack and she were together had been a key factor in her success to convince him. But now that was not the case anymore. As a matter of fact, he resented her for breaking up with him over what he had considered to be "just a casual fling".

While Jack kept threatening Kate on the phone, she watched ‘Haywire’ jump to his death, his body falling just a few yards from the vehicle she was in.

Still shocked from that vision, she did her best to overlook her boss's words and finished the call as soon as she could. She had been seeing ‘Haywire’ on the top of the elevator grain since they had arrived, and she had noticed how Mahone had managed to get close to him. In fact, he had been by his side for quite a while, and from where she was sitting, Kate would say that he had been talking to him. Kate had assumed that he had been trying to make ‘Haywire’ surrender and climb down. Why on earth hadn't the agent stopped the escapee from jumping then? It made no sense at all.

Alex's face was pale and his frown burrowed when he made his way back to the SUV. After giving some instructions to the cops and patrolmen that were doing their best to keep the scene from prying eyes he hopped in, started the engine and drove back on the main road. He did not say a word, and neither did Kate, still too shocked. 

But when he missed the turn for the highway Kate looked at him and cleared her throat. "Aren't we going back to DuPage?" she quietly asked.

"After the coroner and the police station. Apparently they’re in the same building..." he trailed off, not looking at her at all, his attention totally focused on the directions he had been given by the local law enforcement agents.

His words encouraged Kate to inquire how he was doing after the events she had just witnessed. After all, he had been right by ‘Haywire’ when he had jump off. "You okay?"

When Mahone heard her, he briefly rested his gaze on hers. "I'm sorry you had to see that..." he mumbled. Her question remained unanswered as he pulled over in front of the police station.

What was supposed to be a short visit ended up taking most of the day. Kate spent it in a small office beside the break room in the precinct, working and speaking on her cell with her assistant and her parents, who were completely oblivious to her current situation and thought that she was working on a high profile case at a fancy FBI office. She did not receive any incoming call from Linc or Michael that day either.

She was on her fourth trip to the vending machine when she nearly ran into Mahone in the narrow corridor.

"Come on, let's go," he said. Kate went to the office to gather her things, and followed him outside the building, welcoming the feeling of the cold night breeze in her face. To her surprise he opened up the trunk of the SUV, retrieved a duffel bag and kept walking towards a small hotel in the next block.

"Where are you going?" Kate asked, following him as he entered the lobby of the hotel.

"We'll have to stay here tonight," he bluntly responded before turning to the reception.

"What?" Kate said, shaking her head in disbelief.

Ignoring her question, he turned back after exchanging a few words with the reception clerk. "They say they don't have connecting or adjourning rooms, and two regular rooms are tricky custody wise. One room'd be a problem?" he asked, pitching his nose. The adrenaline and the effects of the Veratril were starting to wear off and he suddenly felt exhausted. Plus his conscience was beginning to process the fact that he had purposely led a mentally ill man to his death.

Kate raised her eyebrows and could not help but snort. "Since we're both adults and not attracted to each other at all it's fine by me," she retorted, shrugging. She was still mad at Jack after their conversation, and shocked by Haywire’s death happening right in front of her. Besides that, she was tired, hungry and desperately needed a hot shower to try and relax her stiffen muscles, and the last thing she wished was to share a hotel room with grumpy, bossy and moody Special Agent in charge Alex Mahone. Little did she know back then that in the years to come she would remember that night as a turning point in her life.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

After having something to eat at a diner right across the street from the hotel, while Mahone was glued to his cell phone standing by the door on the walkside, Kate was finally able to step into a hot shower, relax her sore muscles and wonder, once more, when she would be able to go back to her life instead of chasing the Fox River Eight. It had only been two days since she had left her home in Edison Park but it already seemed like a lifetime, and she had the feeling that very little progress had been made on the case, so she thought that she would be stuck with the FBI for a few more days unless there was any new development in the investigation.

She sighed as she felt the hot water fall onto her neck and shoulders. She was worried about Vee, about Jack and his standpoint on the murder case she was currently working, about her parents (how much time would they believe that she was helping the Bureau in a secured location?), and about Linc, still on the run with a death sentence over his head. No matter that she hadn't seen him for five years, she was positive he was innocent and Vee's disappearance while she was trying to prove it only made things even clearer to Kate: Lincoln had been set up, and there were people, more likely important people, really invested in hiding the truth.

Given that that morning she had left the house in DuPage only with her purse and her laptop and she had no clothes to change into, a tired, red eyed Mahone had insisted on sharing the contents of his duffel bag with her.

"Don't hesitate to take whatever you want. I'll be in the corridor for a while," he mumbled as soon as they entered the hotel room. It was not only a courtesy towards her privacy; Agent Lang had just faxed him the most relevant developments of the day regarding the case, and he wanted to review it without having to hide it from his unexpected roommate. From what Felicia had told him on the phone, he already knew that there was no news about Burrows and Scofield's current whereabouts. And they had not contacted O'Hare either. Once again, he wondered why Michael had been careful enough to tattoo her contact information on his body if he did not intend to call her. Alex was seriously considering if there was something he could do to prompt that call, although it meant exposing O'Hare, with everything that it entailed.

Mahone had just been on the phone with Kellerman while he had been waiting for Kate outside the diner. When they had exited the precinct he had noticed two missed calls from Kim and Kellerman that he'd better take care of before they could think that he was avoiding them. Anyway, he was not hungry, the last thing he wished right then was to provide the Company with an excuse to execute their threats, and he could still keep a close eye on O'Hare from the sidewalk through the window.

At least thanks to that telephone conversation he had found out that Haywire's death had bought him some time, as he had shown The Company that he was still in the game. "Pathosik's death proves you're focused, Alex. But we also want the big fish, and it has to happen soon. Use that mysterious witness you told us about, or whatever. Remember, they all die," Paul Kellerman had said before abruptly hanging up. " _Yeah, like if I could forget that.._." Mahone thought. He was positive that the image of Haywire killing himself after his words would haunt him for a long time, and that there was no way he would be able to get any sleep that night. It was going to be a very long night.

By the time Alex entered the hotel room again, after he had gone through the information sent by Lang sitting on the floor of the corridor, his back leant on the door of the room, it was already midnight and the lights were off. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he waited a few seconds until his sight adjusted to the dim light of the street lamp that filtered through the drapes, grabbed his duffel bag and made a beeline to the bathroom.

It was nearly three o'clock when Kate woke up. The temperature in the room had dropped considerably since she had gone to bed, and as she felt her body shivering under the light covers she knew why her sleep had been disturbed. Remembering that she had seen the thermostat on the far wall of the room earlier, she slowly got up and started to walk in that direction. It was quite a big room, with a sitting area with a couch and two recliners by the window, where Mahone was supposed to be sleeping according to his prior words. "You take all the space in the room you need, and, of course the bed. I'll take the sofa," he had instructed before leaving Kate alone in the room.

If she recalled correctly, she just had to follow the wall in the dark to get to the thermostat without turning on the lights. But soon after she had started to walk, placing her hands on the wall in order to advance towards it, she suddenly stumbled over something, or it would better to say somebody, that was leaning against the lower part of the wall.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kate heard a husky, raspy voice ask, as she felt two strong arms holding her and preventing her from landing hard on the wooden floor. Despite the drunken state he was in, he had heard her get up from the bed in the dark, but had assumed she was going to the bathroom. By the time he had realised she was walking towards him she was already tripping over him.

"What are you doing here?" Kate inquired back, stressing the word 'you', quickly scooting away from his strong arms and sitting on the floor. "You scared me to death… I'm looking for the thermostat, it's freezing in here..." she added.

"With the lights off?" Mahone chuckled.

"Yeah, believe it or not, I didn't want to disturb your sleep..." she replied, bringing her knees to her chest and crossing her arms around her legs in an attempt to keep her body as warm as possible.

"Thanks, I guess... I already turned the heat on a few minutes ago. It should be warmer soon," he slurred as he took off a thick FBI hoodie he was wearing and handed it to her. He had noticed her skin was cold when he had held her and now he could see that she was just wearing one of his thin shirts.

"Thank you…" Kate politely mumbled, quickly putting it on. "Are you drunk?" she then asked. Her eyesight was adjusting to the very dim light in the room and she was now noticing a couple of bottles of what looked like whiskey, one of them almost empty, and a few glasses on the coffee table by the couch that would explain his slurring. " _He must have been drinking and somehow ended up down here after turning the heat on_ ," she supposed.

"No, not yet, but I'm working on it," he chuckled again.

Kate suddenly remembered the events of the day before. "Yeah, I don't blame you. And you're high, too?" she dared to add. Under any other circumstance she would have been scared to be alone in a hotel room with a drunk and stoned stranger, but somehow she felt safe with him. That realization surprised her because he was the one that was hunting Lincoln to bring him back to the death row. So, how could she feel safe with him?

"What are you now, the police?" he asked back, slurring once more.

"No, but I can read the signs, both when you're high and when you need a new dose. I've been close to a painkiller addict..." she slowly explained.

"Yeah, well…" he hesitated, wondering who she was referring to. Mahone could not remember agents Lang or Wheeler mentioning anything like that when they gathered information about her. He had thought that they had been thorough, but it was a fact that they had missed her connection with the escapee brothers, so maybe she did have experience in that field. He then went on talking. "It's not painkillers. It's a tranquilizer, Veratril..." he suddenly found himself admitting. Kate was the first person he was able to tell about the Veratril, as he had not told Felicia, despite her obvious and continued concern about him, and he had not told Pam, either, because he sensed that if he told his ex-wife about it and the whole Shales ordeal the chances she would take him back in her life would be very slim, and having his family back was the only thing he cared about these days.

Kate nodded, surprised that he was admitting and not denying it, like most addicts did. "That's quite a strong tranquilizer. You have a prescription for that?" she mumbled after taking a sip of whiskey. She felt how it slightly burnt down her throat, a sensation long forgotten, and quickly took another sip in the hope that it'd help warm her body as well as delete the images of Haywire's brain smashed against the concrete.

Kate could see Alex's shoulder shrugging in the dim light. He was now wearing a white t-shirt, with 'FBI' written across his chest in big blue capital letters. It enhanced his upper muscles, usually hidden under his perfectly ironed shirts and suit jackets. She did her best not to stare. "Kind of..." he muttered.

"So you did have it but you don't anymore…" Kate trailed off and then decided to change the subject. "Hard day, uh?" she finally inquired.

"I'm sorry you had to see that..." He really was. She was his only current lead to Burrows, and he would take her to the end of the world if it was necessary, but there was no need for her to watch Patoshik's death from the front row.

"Yeah…" Kate said, remembering how the blood from the con had splattered the windshield of the SUV she was in at the time, and shivering at the memory. "I could really use a nightcap, would you care if I joined you?" she heard herself asking.

"Sure. Ice?" he clumsily lifted himself off the floor to get the whiskey and two glasses.

"No, neat. It's still freezing in here..." Kate responded, watching how he left the ice on the coffee table and brought back the full bottle and two glasses.

"You didn't strike me as someone who'd drink neat whisky in the middle of the night..." he whispered as sat back down on the floor, his back against the wall, and quickly poured the brown liquid, handing a glass to Kate, who smiled at his comment.

"Yeah, don't trust appearances. You should know that, working for the FBI and all... "

"Trust me, I know…" He was slowly discovering that when she let her guard down she had an ironic sense of humor, very much like his. Well, like the one he used to have, before Shales and everything that came afterwards. "So you also had a hard day, professionally speaking..." This time it was Mahone the one who changed the topic. Talking about his job was the last thing he wanted now that he had the chance to listen to someone else and forget, at least for a few hours, about the Fox River Eight.

"You read my call log?" she asked, surprised, raising her gaze from the glass to look at him.

He shook his head. "No, I heard it…" Besides faxing him all the new developments in the case, Felicia had connected all her calls to his voicemail, and Alex had heard all of them while he had been in the corridor. "What your boss said... that's not right, you shouldn't go through that..." he trailed off.

Kate nodded. "I know. And I'm not changing my mind, no matter what he says or does…" she sighed. "I'm fed up with all this cat and mouse play..."

"Cat and mouse?" he inquired, pouring himself another glass of whiskey.

This time it was Kate who shrugged. "Well, it's complicated."

"Yeah, I guess… There's a saying about that, don't mix business with pleasure…" he mumbled between sips.

"You've got any experience in that field?" she boldly asked. It was obvious that Agent Lang had feelings for him, and all of a sudden Kate was curious if he had ever noticed, and, if he had, had he made a move on her?

Felicia immediately came to his mind as Kate posed her question. He was well aware how she felt about him although she had never told him. But the way she looked at him was unmistakable. Even when he's high as a kite he's able to see that. But he's always ruled out the possibility of something happening between them. At first, because he was happily married, and more recently, because he did not want to drag his subordinate down the rabbit hole he was in. He really respected her and that was not the way he should pay her back for her unwavering loyalty over the years. "Nah, I've always avoided it..."

Kate chuckled, placing her glass on the floor in front of her. "Lucky you... I should've done the same..."

"So you liked him?" Mahone softly asked as he filled her glass again.

His question took her by surprise, because she had asked that herself many times since that night four years ago when she had gone to have some drinks after work with her colleagues and had ended up kissing her boss goodnight after he had given her a ride home. "What? I... I don't know..."

"You were seeing someone for, what, two years, and you don't know if you liked him? You were with him because he was your boss?" Alex bluntly inquired. He was feeling more and more relaxed as he kept drinking, and the conversation with Kate was momentarily making him forget about the events of the last days.

The alcohol must have been already in her system because she did not feel offended by his questions. But she did feel the need to explain herself. "No, it's not that. But he came into my life when I had just gone through a difficult breakup. Sometimes I wonder if things have been different if I had stuck by Linc's side..."

"Burrows? Let me get this straight… are you saying that you were seeing your boss in secret, against your firm rules, because you had broken up with Lincoln Burrows?" Alex asked again, wondering once more what Lincoln Burrows and Kate O'Hare could have in common. Little could he guess that that same night, in about fifteen minutes, he was about to find out when Linc would finally contact Kate.

"I know how it sounds, but... Don't get me wrong. Jack can be a nice guy, but..." she said. To be fair, there had been a time when she had been happy with Jack, or, at least, she had thought so.

"But you broke up with him and he's resented you since..." Mahone finished the sentence for her. He had seen through her boss the minute Jack had barged into her office looking for a report.

Kate chuckled. He had nailed it. "Is that the FBI agent talking? Because I actually think that's what happened... what about you? You said you have a son, no wife?" she asked, intrigued by his personal life, resting her left hand on his forearm as she stretched and reached out for the bottle of whiskey with the right. His skin was warm, much warmer than hers, and her hand lingered on his arm as she poured more whiskey in both their glasses, while he looked at her asking himself if she was touching him just for balance.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Nobody had touched Alex like that since he had thrown Pam out of his life years ago. As a matter of fact, if someone would have tried to get close to him he would have automatically backed off, yet this time he wished Kate had lingered a little bit more when she withdrew her hand. But apparently it was all his imagination because O’Hare was back to her seating position after placing the bottle on the floor, looking at him as she waited for an answer, completely oblivious to the turmoil she had just caused. 

"Yes, Cameron, he's five..." he finally said, remembering her question, his face brightening up as soon as he mentioned his son’s name. Kate had never seen Mahone smile like that before, at best she had seen him smirk, and she thought that he really looked handsome in the dim light of the room, his sharp features softened by his smile. Without realizing it, she scooted back against the wall at the thought, trying to put some distance between them. 

Kate tried to focus on their conversation again, but she was starting to notice the effects of the alcohol in her system. "Are you two close, or does your job get in the way?” she inquired, earning a surprised look from him. “I mean, most of my friends have changed jobs in order to be with their kids. Being on the partner track in a law firm doesn’t seem ideal for family life. They say your priorities change when you have children..." she explained.

Mahone sighed and leant his head on the wall, his gaze now fixed on the ceiling. "They're right, they do. But I wasn't able to act accordingly, and my job actually got in the way... Now he lives in Colorado and I don't get to see him much..." he muttered.

It was obviously a painful subject for him. "I'm sorry to hear that... He’s with his mother?" It had not gone unnoticed by Kate that he had not mentioned a wife although she had bluntly asked about it.

Alex nodded and looked back to her, his piercing eyes now searching for understanding in hers. "Yeah… And she's a wonderful mother, a great woman... I just… I just wanted to protect them, I wasn't thinking… clearly… when I forced her to leave..." he mumbled. 

"Hey, I'm sure she knows that..." Kate tried to comfort him, locking eyes with him. Something in his facial expression told her that he was really troubled by it. And, against her best judgement, she stretched her hand and rested it on his forearm again. 

He chuckled, overlooking her touch this time, too deep in his thoughts. "I just want my old life back, I want them back in our house. That's why I'm doing all this… otherwise there’s no way I’d be a part in it..." he explained, holding both his hands up in the air in front of him, causing her hand to drop to her lap.

Kate frowned. His words implied that he was doing things that he should not be doing, which was quite worrying coming from a law enforcement officer. "All this, what do you mean?"

Mahone shrugged, suddenly alarmed that he was speaking too much. Not only was she a key witness in his case, but she was also a lawyer, and a very good one from what he had heard. "This, my job,” he firmly stated. “On our way to DuPage you mentioned that you didn't want kids?" he inquired out of the blue.

The question took Kate off-guard. First, because she had forgotten about that comment and, second, because she was expecting a confession of sorts from him, but he had been capable of turning it into a personal question for her. She chuckled. He was good, very good at this, even drunk and high, and she wondered if this was the way he conducted his interrogations when working. She thought she excelled at cross-examination of witnesses on the stand, at least most of her colleagues said that, but she could see that Mahone was even better than her. 

"I... I don't know. I've never thought about it. Never had the right partner I guess… Connor and I mentioned it a couple of times, but were way too young..." she finally trailed off.

"Connor Larkin? Your neighbor?" he asked after emptying his glass in one gulp and looking back at her. 

He surprised her again. "Yeah… How do you know that?"

"FBI, remember?" he joked, signaling the letters of his t-shirt with his right hand as he kept his gaze on hers, his eyebrows raised.

"How can I forget...” Kate laughed. ”Yes, he's my neighbor, and my best friend, and used to be my boyfriend…" she said, remembering how Connor had been a constant presence in her life since she was in preschool. Sometimes she had the feeling that her life would probably be completely different had he stayed in Chicago for college.

"So, what happened?" he urged her to continue. The affection was evident in her voice. Lang and Wheeler had not provided him with any details about her high school boyfriend, and although he was not related to the case, Alex was now curious.

Kate's mind went back to their sophomore year in college, Thanksgiving to be more precise. She sighed. "Long distance happened. It wasn't painful, we both realised there was no point in being together when we only saw each other during the summer,” she said, her gaze wandering around the dark room. “Our parents were desolated, though..." she added, grinning.

After his encounter with Hank O’Hare two days before, it was difficult for Mahone to picture him happy with whoever dated his daughter. "Really?”

“Yeah, they’re neighbors and best friends and I guess they’d dreamt of spoiling their grandchildren together…” Their break-up had been a blast in both families, and they had tried to bring them back together over the years whenever Connor was home, but their matchmaking efforts had never succeeded. 

Alex laughed. “Yeah, that makes sense… For what it's worth, when I picked you up your father made me feel like if I was taking you to the Prom..."

She laughed along. “Oh, I’m really sorry about that, Mahone. He’s very protective and… oh God, you should’ve seen Connor at the Prom… I don’t know what he told him earlier that night but I practically had to jump him to get a goodnight kiss…” She smiled at the memory. “Thank God he...”

In that exact moment Kate’s phone rang, interrupting her. “Who can it be this late?” she mumbled as she lifted herself up from the floor and quickly padded towards the bedside table, where her cell was plugged. The screen showed a number she did not recognize and she answered right away, worried that something might have happened to her parents.

“Hello?” she said, feeling a lump in her throat. Usually no good news came in the middle of the night in the form of a telephone call, and she braced herself for impact. But nothing had prepared her for the voice and the words she was about to hear on the other side of the line.

“Hey Kate, it’s Linc…” She had not heard his voice in years, but as soon as she pronounced her name nostalgia washed over her. She instantaneously tried to sober up and focus on helping him if she could. She had been eagerly waiting for this call to happen for the last two days, and she thought it was really bad luck that it had found her nearly drunk, tipsy at the very least. 

“Linc! How are you?” she asked. Seeking some privacy, she deliberately turned so her back was now facing Mahone, who was already on his feet walking towards her. 

“Listen, Kate, I don’t have much time… Just wanted to warn you…” Lincoln quickly said.

“Warn me? Are you alright?” she interrupted him, anxious to know if he needed help. 

“Yeah, warn you… Vee is dead, Kate, and they may be after you too…” Linc blurted out. There was no easy way to say it and he really did not have the time to beat around the bush. Michael had advised him not to contact Kate yet. There was no way they could help her if the Company was somehow after her, and there was no information they could provide to her beyond the fact that Vee had been shot. And the call itself could draw attention to her, both from the Company and the FBI, if they weren’t already on her. Plus she was part of one of their exit plans, and contacting her now could compromise that. 

Kate froze. “Vee dead? How… how… how do you know? I don’t understand…” It did not make any sense that he knew she was dead, while he was on the run, whereas the FBI had been looking for her for the last days. 

“I heard her being shot when I was speaking to her, she’d just found evidence of a conspiracy… Important people are involved… I don’t think they’d be able to track you down, but just in case, a vacation abroad would be a good idea…” Lincoln trailed off, trying to give her all the information he could before quickly hanging up. 

Her mind was now spinning and she suddenly felt sick. “Linc, how can I help you?” Kate asked, fighting back the nausea.

“I gotta go, Kate. Please take care…” and he hung up.

Kate incredulously looked at her cell, tears sliding down her cheeks, until she heard Mahone behind her, barking orders to his team on his phone, urging them to trace down the call and get him the full transcription right away. She slowly turned around, her phone still in her hand, and raised her gaze to look at him when he had finished. 

“What did he…” Alex started to inquire, totally focused on the case, but he stopped on his tracks as he noticed her tears in the dim light of the room. “You okay?” he asked instead. Adrenaline had kicked in the second he had heard Kate pronounce the name ‘Linc’ when she had answered the call. Finally it was happening, Burrows had contacted her and at last he was going to be able to locate his whereabouts. He would be apprehended. Despite the alcohol and Veratril in his system, Alex’s mind was already planning his next steps to comply with the Company’s wishes. That would mean that his family would be no longer threatened, but her tears shocked him. 

“Vee’s dead… Veronica Donovan is dead…” Kate repeated, whispering, barely able to speak.

“What? How?” Mahone had not been expecting anything like that. 

“Linc said she’s been shot while they were on the phone…” She then placed her cell on the bed and started gathering her clothes. “I have to get home, my parents…” Kate muttered as she turned to go to the bathroom. 

Mahone quickly stood in front of her, blocking her way. Now that he was finally working on a solid lead he was not letting her go. He would certainly need her for the next stages of his plan. “What do you think you’re doing, O’Hare?”

“He’s said that there’s a … conspiracy, important people, Vee’d discovered it… I have to go home...” she stammered, trying to pass past him, but he blocked her again. He raised his arms in order to show her that he was not going to touch her unless it was necessary. 

“O’Hare, hold on, listen to me … Burrows is a con on the run… He’d say whatever benefits him…” he trailed off.

Kate shook her head. She had stopped crying and was now trying to think how she could be home as soon as possible. “No, he wanted to warn me… Could you please take me home?” she begged, locking eyes with him. 

“No, you can’t go home…” he replied, overlooking the fact that he was way too drunk to be driving around.

“Doesn’t matter… I’ll take a taxi or rent a car…” she replied, trying to reach a nearby chair for her purse. 

“You’re not going anywhere…” Alex said, softly taking her arm. He did not want to resort to force to prevent her from leaving the hotel room, but he would not hesitate to do so should he need to. 

“I’m going home, Mahone…” she repeated, quickly moving her arm in order to get past him.

“No, you can’t…” He was faster than she was, and grabbed her other arm, pinning her against the wall. 

“Hey let me go…” she complained as she felt the warmth of his body near hers. He then released the grip on her arm and started talking in a soft tone once she had stopped moving.

“Listen to me first. You can’t go home… If they’ve gotten to Donovan you may be next, you need our protection…” he explained, his mind quickly coming up for an excuse to keep her in his custody. 

“Who’s they…?” She froze when she had felt pinned against the wall, and her voice was hardly audible, but he was able to hear it thanks to their physical proximity.

He softly spoke in her ear. “O’Hare, I can’t discuss the case with you, you know the drill, but you need to stay in our custody…”

Kate tilted her head so that she could look him in the eye. “Are my parents in danger, Mahone? And, please, don't lie to me...”

He sighed, and leant back, giving her some space. He really did not have a clue if the Company was after her or not, but he would do everything in his power to keep her in his custody now that he was so close to apprehend the escaped brothers. Once Burrows had shown up it was not the time to hesitate. “Don’t think so, but I’ll have a car sitting in your street for the next few days if you stay with us…” he slowly said, hoping that his offer would do the trick and make her stay. If he knew anything about her, it was that her family always came first.

She lifted herself off the wall. “Would you do that?” Kate softly inquired, wiping off her tears with her right hand while the left still held her phone.

“Of course… But we need your full cooperation in order to get to the escapees…” Alex responded, diverting his gaze from her to his own cell phone in his hand. He was wondering why it was taking his team so long to gather Information about the call. He was obviously forgetting that it was the middle of the night and most of them were sound asleep when it came through.

“Linc’s innocent. If you apprehend him he’s going back to the death row…” Kate stated, letting her back lean on the wall of the room again for support.

A crazy idea crossed his mind then. “I promise I’ll help him get fair treatment, but for that he needs to be back in custody…”

Kate’s brow furrowed. “Are you really willing to give him another chance? Is that actually up to you?”

“I am if you cooperate...” Mahone lied straight to her face. “After all these years I know my way around the system, people owe me big favors…” he added to convince her, seeing that she was looking at him hesitantly.

After a few moments she nodded. “Okay, I will, I’ll stay then…” she finally agreed. “It’s just... I can’t believe Vee’s dead…” she muttered, looking down as she felt her eyes well again.

This time it was his cell phone the one that rang. As he turned to answer it, Kate lifted herself off the wall, tears silently falling down her cheeks. When she finally could not suppress a sob, she felt his hand on her shoulder.. She did not have to turn around to know that he was trying to comfort her, and gratitude washed over her. It would still take her time to realise that his actual intentions were far from keeping his promise.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

In the years to come Kate would remember the hours that followed Linc’s call in a complete blur. Not only was she tipsy from the whiskey, but she was highly impressed by the news regarding Vee’s death. She had also heard his voice for the first time in years and that had made an impression on her, too. It had brought back all kinds of memories about the choices she had made during that time of her life. She vaguely recalled getting dressed in the bathroom while Mahone was again speaking with his team on the phone, then hopping in his SUV and quickly falling asleep. When she woke up, she found he had just stopped the car in a parking lot.

“What are we doing here?” Kate asked, looking around. It was still dark but they were clearly near an airport she did not recognise. 

“We’re taking the first flight to Denver…” Mahone mumbled with his eyes closed, not bothering to face her and pinching his nose in an effort to stop the headache he had no doubt was coming. He could see now that back in Argoma he had been pretty unprofessional and careless letting himself drown his sorrows in alcohol while keeping a witness in custody. He had intended it as a way to blow off some steam, as he was feeling more and more threatened by the Company every passing day, but now he thought he should be really thankful if it had only ended in a migraine and an empty promise he had no intention to honor at all. He had said too much, and he hoped it would not end up backfiring at him. 

“What? You have to be kidding me…” Kate’s surprised voice brought him back to reality. This time he turned to look at her, letting her know, just with his gaze, that he did not give a damn what she thought. “ _ Grumpy Mahone’s back, _ ” she thought to herself as she locked eyes with him. If she was honest with herself, she had to admit that she had unexpectedly had a good time with him last night until Linc’s call came through. The Mahone she had been speaking to then had nothing to do with the grumpy, bossy and moody Special Agent Mahone that was dragging her across the county looking for a chance to apprehend Lincoln and his brother Michael. He had even tried to comfort her after she knew about Vee. She absentmindedly shook her shoulder as she remembered how his hand had lingered there for a while until her sobs and tears had stopped. 

Regardless of the look he had just given her, he still responded. “That’s where Lincoln’s call came from….” Alex mumbled. He failed to mention that it had been really convenient as his ex wife Pam and his son Cameron were currently living in Durango, Colorado. He was really eager to see them and to make sure that the Company had not proceeded with any of their threats regarding his family. “ _ Yet _ ,” he sadly thought. 

“If we’re supposed to be flying around the country a heads up would’ve been nice… At least I could’ve gotten my bag back in DuPage…” Kate softly trailed off, still holding his gaze. She could not believe the man behind the wheel was the same one that had friendly shared a bottle of whiskey with her and comforted her after knowing about Vee’s death just a few hours before.

He silently raised his eyebrows and looked at the back seat. When Kate turned in her seat she saw her bag. Apparently she had been asleep for longer than she thought. Had they gone back to DuPage and she had been so wasted not to wake up at all?

“Thank you…” she embarrassedly muttered, turning back on the passenger seat and setting her eyes on his again. 

Mahone shrugged. “Don’t thank me, Agent Lang said you´d like to have your own clothes and brought it over…”

“Definitely I will thank her as soon as I see her again… ” She narrowed her eyes asking herself if she should mention the clothes he had lent her in Argoma. “And thank you for your t-shirt and your hoodie last night...” she finally added. 

A flash of the image of O’Hare in his clothes rushed his mind. He had already drunk more than half a bottle when she had woken up looking for the thermostat, but that had not prevented him from noticing her long, bare legs, and the way the rest of her body was hidden under his t-shirt, clearly too big for her, but still clinging to her chest when she stretched her arms. He even recalled that at some point during their chat he had wondered if she was wearing a bra under his t-shirt. Once more, he shook that image off his mind as he exited the vehicle, mumbling a barely audible “You’re welcome”, that sounded more like a grunt.

By the time they got to the boarding gate Kate’s head was pounding. Not that she was surprised. She did have time to sleep in the car but she could already feel the first symptoms of a hangover. When they finally boarded the plane, she noticed that her seat was the one by the window.

“Do you mind if we switch seats?” Kate asked, tuning to face Mahone. They had hardly exchanged a few words since they had hopped out his black SUV and he was startled by the interruption, his own head pounding too. 

“You’re afraid of flying?” He chuckled. "I thought that you were related to Edward "Butch" O'Hare..."

“I'm not afraid of flying but I’d rather be by the aisle, if you don't mind…” It had been a long time since she had drunk that much and the nearer she was to the lavatory the better, just in case. Plus she was still impressed and upset by Vee’s death, and emptying the contents of her stomach was usually her way to deal with this kind of news. That’s why she had refused to have breakfast in the airport when Alex had asked her and settled with a cup of coffee instead. She could remember how she had virtually spent the first two days after her mom had been diagnosed with cancer when she had been eighteen, and now she knew she had a long flight ahead. Seeing his hesitant look, she insisted. “It’s not like I’m running away, Mahone. I’d really appreciate it if…”

“Okay then,” he finally drawled. Her voice was echoing in his mind and the last thing he wanted now was an argument over the seats. He had a lot to work on the flight, mainly planning the best strategy to lure Lincoln Burrows toward him, and he did not want to be distracted. He had enough putting up with his growing headache.

By the time their plane took off, Kate took a deep breath and closed her eyes, resting her head back on her seat. The migraine was getting worse and she wished she could be able to get some sleep during the flight. “ _ Not likely _ ,” she thought, hoping that at least they would have a quiet flight, with not much turbulence, and she would be able to shake Vee off her head, too. 

Right after the cart with beverages left their row, she noticed Mahone’s hand in front of her, holding a pill. She quickly turned her head to face him, surprised, but winced at the pain the sudden move caused in her head.

“Aspirin. Take it. It’ll help with the hangover…” he mumbled.

“Thanks…” she said, taking the pill from his hand and thinking that she had not been very successful at hiding her current state, which was not very difficult given that he knew first hand the amount of alcohol she had taken just a few hours before. “What is it, you have a whole stash of pills...” she whispered, not wanting to be overheard by the passengers surrounding them.

Alex's face did not react to the joke at all. “No, I asked the stewardess for a couple of aspirins while you were asleep. Go ahead, you can take it, it’s not like I’m trying to poison you or anything…” he added in a light tone.

“Thank you,” she thanked him again and took it. She must have fallen asleep again because the next thing she remembered was waking up to the voice of the pilot announcing their descent over Colorado. 

Just off the plane, they headed over a rental car office and in no time she found herself in a small conference room located in the FBI Denver field office. Mahone introduced her to one of colleagues, Tom Byrne, explaining that he would be gone for most of the day and that she should address Tom for anything she might need. Luckily for her, the room she was in had a balcony overseeing the gardens that surrounded the building, and as soon as she noticed it she moved a small desk and a chair onto the balcony, and spent most of the day working outdoors, which actually helped with her headache. The weather was perfect, cloudy but not cold, and she found herself enjoying her time outdoors for the first time in a few days, as she tried not to think about Vee and Linc too much. 

As lunch time approached, Tom brought Kate two sandwiches and a bottle of water, and handed them over to her, leaning on the rail of the balcony himself and taking a deep breath. “We don’t have a wide selection at the cafeteria, but I assure you they are good,” he said looking at the sandwiches she had just put on the desk. “This is nice…” he added, looking around.

“Yeah, it’s good to be outdoors for a change…” Kate agreed. Her migraine had gotten at least bearable during the last hours and she was not in the mood for small talk, but she did bit want to be rude either. 

“Alex says you’re a lawyer currently helping him on a difficult old case during his time off the Burrows case…” Tom cautiously trailed off. He had been surprised to know that Mahone was travelling with a woman who did not work for the FBI, and had been genuinely curious when he had introduced them. He and Mahone had worked together in Chicago for more than ten years, and had been close during that time. In fact, Tom was Cameron's godfather, and his daughter was Alex's goddaughter. Although he did not know the details, Tom was well aware that Alex’s life had not been the same since he had been in charge of the Shales case. 

“That’s right…” Kate said, not knowing what else to add. That was the official version and she felt that the more she stuck with it, the better. 

Tom smiled. “Well, thanks for helping him. He’s gone through hell over the last years, and he doesn’t deserve it at all… It’s good to know that there’s someone helping him out, and that he’s finally accepting help,” he continued, being careful of not saying too much but, at the same time, wanting Kate to know that his friend was going through a rough patch. 

Kate shrugged, wondering what Tom could be referring to. “I’m glad I can help…” she politely said.

She spent the rest of the day working from the desk in the balcony, and that also involved a telephone conversation with Jack. She had sent him her final notes on the autopsy by email, and he had called her as soon as he got it. He apologized for his behavior the prior day and begged her to reconsider her position on the case and their client. “Please, Kate, think about it. You are the most talented lawyer I have in my team, and you know it,” he praised her. “I need you in this case. I promise you it’ll be the last one...”

“Jack…” she hesitated. It was very flattering to hear her boss say that about her, but that did not change the fact that their client was guilty and she was not comfortable at all defending him.

“If you want, you can be second chair and skip most of the spotlight at court…” he offered, sensing her hesitation. 

“Jack, what difference does that make? You really think I’m worried about taking the leading role at Court? I thought you knew me better...” she retorted, resting her head on the chair and closing her eyes.

“The question is, Kate, does it really matter how well I know you? Would you be having this conversation with your boss if you hadn’t been seeing him for two years and…”

“ _ Jerk _ ,” she thought when she heard his words, quickly opening her eyes and taking a deep breath. “If that was the case, Jack, I’m sure he would have never threatened me like you did yesterday…” she deadpanned.

Jack chuckled. “Not necessarily. You seem to think that every misunderstanding we have has to do with us having history, and it doesn’t. You really have to get over it…”

She was doing her best to be reasonable but there were certain things she found it hard to hear without letting him know what she really thought of him. “Misunderstanding? Come on Jack…”

He chuckled again. “There’s no partner in any law firm that would let you pick your cases on your own volition, Kate. I think it’s about time you realize that, being on the partnership track and all…”

“Maybe… maybe I’m on the wrong track…” Kate whispered, thinking, not for the first time, that she might not be cut for this job, no matter what Vee, Jack, the rest of her friends and the partners thought.

Jack sighed. His last intention was to make her second guess herself. First, because he was not lying when he said that she was the best lawyer he had on his team. And then, because no matter what she thought of him and how she had ended their relationship, he still cared about her. A lot. And not only professionally. “Kate… just work on this case while you’re with the FBI and when you come back I promise we’ll figure something out… By the way, how long are they planning on having you there, wherever it is that you are…” he finally said, looking for a truce.

“I honestly don’t know,... but I’m really looking forward to going home…” she trailed off before finally agreeing on working the case while she was away.

Kate also spoke to her parents. She did not mention Vee’s death at all, in order not to upset them (they would know eventually, but she hoped to have answers by then), but she tried to find out if they had noticed something strange lately by asking questions about their jobs and the neighborhood. By the time they hung up, she was certain that they were not aware of anything out of the ordinary going on near them.

It was nearly 6 pm when Mahone showed up in the conference room, still dressed in his perfectly ironed suit after a whole day. Nobody would say that he had spent most of it in a plane and driving, as no wrinkle could be found on any of his clothes. His frown was furrowed and his eyes were darting across the room when he addressed Kate from beside the frame of the door.

“You ready?” he drawled.

“For what, exactly?” Kate retorted, turning to face him. She had not meant to be rude, but she was tired and starving, and although she had been distracted most of day, Vee and Linc were again wandering through her mind. In these circumstances, she was not looking forward to spending time with grumpy and boosy Mahone. She just wanted to be able to get some much needed rest. 

“We’re off to Colorado Springs. Burrows was spotted there earlier today…” he explained setting his eyes on hers at last.

A seventy mile drive with Special Agent in charge Mahone was the last thing Kate fancied right then. She still had to come to terms with the fact that he was doing all this to apprehend Linc and bring him back to the death row. He had promised to help him have fair treatment, but if somehow he failed to do that, how would she be able to live with herself knowing that she had collaborated in his capture? Lincoln had risked everything to call and warn her the night before, and this was the way she was going to thank him? That idea was too painful. “Can I just stay here?” she managed to ask, in an attempt to stand aside as much as possible. 

Mahone shook his head. She was key in the plan he had mapped out during the day and it was not the time to hesitate. “No, I need you in Colorado Springs. You’re meeting Lincoln tonight…”


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

“Pardon me? How am I supposed to do that?” Kate inquired, surprised.  _ “Meeting Lincoln? Wasn’t he on the run? What do they want me to do?”  _ A lot of questions rushed her mind in a split second.

“We’re working on it…” Mahone elusively said. He was having a hard day. He had visited Pam and Cameron in their home in Durango, but his son had been complaining about how seldom they see each other (“ _ You’re always working, dad… _ ” he had said a few times) and his ex wife had been cold and distant. He did understand his behavior had been inexcusable, but seeing how she was when he was around he was starting to think that the changes that he could win her back were slim, very slim. 

Besides that, he was angry because despite Lincoln´s call the night before, there was no progress in the investigation. Nearly twenty-four hours had already passed, and they were much in the same place as they were the previous night, case wise. Agent Lang had just told him on the phone that Scofield might have been located in Albuquerque, but it was not a solid lead yet. He feared that the brothers had taken different paths, and, if that were the case, they would have to, at least, double their pursuing resources. Felicia had concurred, adding that she would keep him in the loop with developments.

So, in this scenario, the last thing he needed was a discussion about strategy with a witness, because he suspected that should he tell her about his plan, she probably wouldn’t like it. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep a close eye on you. You’ll be safe…” he felt the urge to add, noticing her furrowed brow once his eyes stopped darting around the room and focused on her. But he had misread her expression. 

Kate shook her head. “You don’t seriously think that Linc could hurt me in any way…” she slowly stated.

Alex chuckled. He ran his hand through his mope of fair hair and looked at her again. “O’Hare, let me be clear. He’s a convict on the run who’s facing a death sentence. No matter what a romantic idea you have about him in your mind, I’m pretty sure he’d do anything to avoid that and flee the country...” he slowly explained. All the information they had been able to recover from the hard drive they had found in the river led to the same conclusion: the brothers’ plan was to flee to Panama, and by now Alex had no doubt that Scofield had worked on various ways to reach their ultimate goal. Again, he was running out of time. 

“You really have no idea…” Kate snorted. She believed that he was completely lost if he really thought that Lincoln was a regular convict. As she had assured Mahone a few days back, she had never thought Linc capable of killing at all, and that’s why she believed what he had told her the night before about a conspiracy. It would explain that his case had been a set up from the beginning. Otherwise, why would Vee be dead, if she only intended to help him? How could the Special Agent in charge working the case be so blind not to see all that? Wasn’t he one of the best agents in the FBI according to his own colleagues? “ _ He doesn’t seem that good to me…”  _ Kate thought, not for the first time. Little did she know that his extraordinary skills were currently blurred and numbed by drugs and mostly by the threats made by the Company, involving not only him, but his family, too. Had she been aware of those circumstances then, she would have probably been more understanding. 

“I do know I don’t need your input either…” Alex retorted, tired, not wanting to waste his energy on a futile conversation. “Let’s roll…” he ordered, turning around and quickly leaving the conference room. 

The drive to Colorado Springs was quiet, as both of them had a lot to think about. Besides that, Kate had noticed something different in his demeanor after being out most of the day, but she could not define it. He seemed sadder, if that was even possible, but she knew better than to ask about it. Kate had had her share of sharp replies for the day and, frankly, she was not in the mood for small talk with grumpy Mahone. She had made that very clear right after he had started the engine of his black SUV by taking her laptop out of her purse and turning it on. 

But it did not take her too long to realize that she would not be getting any work done any time soon. Mixed emotions washed over her and she failed to concentrate on the affidavits she was trying to read on the screen of her laptop. First, she was still shocked by both Vee’s death and Linc’s call. Not only was she impressed by what he had told her, but also hearing his voice for the first time in five years had brought back memories of the short time they had been together. And the fact that he had contacted her to warn her made her feel awful, because not only had she abruptly broken up with him back then and he still cared about her enough to risk his escape, but right after his call she had just agreed to collaborate with the FBI in his apprehension, overwhelmed by the news about Veronica and Mahone’s offer to keep an eye on her parents while the investigation was on and get Linc fair treatment. “ _ How can I look him in the eye when I see him tonight? _ ” she sadly thought. The perspective of seeing him after all this time also made her nervous. 

By the time they arrived in Colorado Springs, Mahone had a few missed calls that he needed to return asap. He had let them go straight to voicemail because he had not wanted to discuss his strategy in front of Kate since she was highly involved in it and the less she knew beforehand, the better. Like the night before, she had something to eat at a quiet diner while he was glued to his cell phone standing by the door on the walkside. After a few minutes, he came inside the joint, strolled to her booth and stood by her, having a quick look at the few patrons that were there before speaking. “Meeting will be tomorrow. We’ll spend the night here,” he barked, not providing her with any further details. 

After checking in a nearby motel, Kate was finally able to hop in a hot shower, relax her sore muscles and wonder, again, when she would be able to go back to her life instead of chasing the Fox River Eight across the country with no other company than Special Agent in Charge Alexander Mahone. Now that Linc had contacted her, she had the feeling that a huge progress had been made on the case, but she really dared the next steps, and, more precisely, her role in them. And if he was right and there was a conspiracy? While she had been pretending to work on their way here, Kate had slowly come to realize that despite everything, she did feel safe with Mahone, so maybe being with the FBI while everything was resolved (alleged conspiracy included) was not such a bad idea. She harbored conflicted emotions about that, and she immediately fought back a new flashing thought: “ _ By thinking that I’m not being loyal to Linc. He doesn’t deserve that.”  _

__

They were again sharing a double room. Mahone had not bothered to seek her opinion about it, and Kate had not complained in the slightest. It seemed like they had come to reach an unspoken agreement about it since the prior night. Once in the room, he stepped out and was again barking orders to his team over the phone in the corridor while she was getting ready for bed. Kate really appreciated the privacy. She called home, talked to her parents for a while, feeling awful for lying to them, and finally turned off the lights as soon as she felt her eyelids closing. 

When she opened her eyes the following morning, she found Mahone in the middle of the room, already dressed in a dark blue suit and white shirt, cell phone in hand, casually leaning on the back of a chair, and tapping the floor with his foot impatiently. 

“How fast can you get ready?” he drawled as soon as he noticed she was awake, avoiding to look directly at her.

“Good morning to you too…” Kate retorted, closing her eyes again and trying to slyly stretch her limbs under the sheets.

“We’re heading for New Mexico, and we need to be there asap…” he said while he took his buffel bag from the chair, overlooking her comment.

She opened her eyes, surprised. “New Mexico? What about Linc?”

“We’re working on it...” Mahone vaguely responded, his eyes still darting across the room as she got up from the bed, took her bag and entered the bathroom. 

As he waited for her to get ready, he replayed the last conversation he had had with the Company. He had just received another worrying call from Kellerman, a few minutes before she woke up.

“What do you think you’re doing seeing your son while most of the Fox River Eight are still on the run, including Burrows and Scofield?” That had been the way Paul Kellerman had greeted him the second he had flipped his phone open.

Tired after a whole night spent on a chair without any sleep, he did not think twice before responding. “I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to see my family…” he whispered into the cellphone. He had taken the call in the bathroom so as not to wake O’Hare, but he did not want her to overhear any part of this conversation.

Kellerman sighed. “No if by doing that you neglect your job, Alex…”

Mahone closed his eyes and tried to focus on winning some time. “I’m in Colorado because we had a lead that Burrows was here,” he explained in a low voice, leaning on the sink.

“And what’s the plan, Alex?”

“We’re luring him to us. We believe he’s in New Mexico now,” Alex responded, doing his best not to sound hesitant.

“And how exactly do you plan to do that?” Paul inquired again. He had been “working” with Alex for a few days now, but he still found him very difficult to read. “ _ He must do a hell of a job for the FBI _ ,” he usually thought at times like this. 

“We’re working on it,” Alex stated, taking his black pen from the inside pocket of his suit jacket with his right hand while he held his cell with the left one.

As he had supposed, that answer did not satisfy Kellerman. “That’s not enough, Alex. What about that mystery witness of yours?”

“That was a dead end. Quite a waste of time and resources if you ask me…” Alex replied, trying to sound angry and keep his voice down at once. Now that Burrows had finally contacted O’Hare it was important that the Company would not be meddling in the investigation. He now fully regretted having mentioned the existence of a witness, but at the time it had seemed like a good idea to buy him some much needed time in order to protect his secret regarding Shales and, much more important, his family. 

“You know what I think, Alex…” Kellerman said in a playful tone that irritated Alex.

“What….” he snapped, as he quickly unscrewed his pen and retrieved one pill, screwing it back carefully. 

“I think that you’re too distracted to do the job, Alex…” Paul slowly said. “She’s a looker, by the way…” he added, chuckling. Of course, Mahone was being closely watched by the Company, and they had noticed he had spent the last two nights in the company of a young woman.

“Who?” Alex asked, confused, swallowing the pill without any water after months of practice. 

Kellerman chuckled again. “That fair haired chick that you spend the nights with… Classy! Is it serious?”

Mahone froze when he heard the comment. “ _ Of course they’re watching, of course they’ve seen her, _ ” he thought. He felt had to keep her out of their scope in order not jeopardise his goals. “No, just need to blow off some steam to do what you’re asking me to do…” he slowly said, hoping that, with that, they would forget about her, for the time being at least.

Paul laughed. “Okay, have fun then, but we expect results soon.”

“You will have them. Soon,” Alex replied, shutting his phone right away.

He had been leaning on the wall as he recalled the conversation while he waited for Kate to emerge from the bathroom. When she did, only ten minutes after she had woken up, her bag hanging from her shoulder, he headed for the door and suddenly stopped on his tracks, turning to face her. 

“Do you trust me?” Mahone inquired out of the blue, placing his blue gaze on hers for the first time that morning. 

“Excuse me?” Kate asked back, locking eyes with him. She had heard him perfectly but she thought it was quite a strange question to come from him.

“I said do you trust me,” he slowly repeated, pinching his nose and briefly closing his eyes. Impatience was evident in the tone of his voice. He could still hear Paul Kellerman’s voice ringing in his ear and he knew he had to do something to reinforce what he had told him, particularly given the fact that he was being watched. 

Kate took her time to provide him with an answer. Despite him being the one in charge of the manhunt (she was certain that apprehending Lincoln and Michael was his main goal), after the events of the last days she had somehow come to trust him. She still could not figure out why beyond the fact that Vee had been killed and she feared she could be next, if Linc was right. “I do,” she finally responded, nodding.

“Then follow my lead out there,” he instructed her, turning around and resuming his way to the door. His black SUV was parked in front of their room and as soon as he reached the car he stopped by the passenger door instead of hopping in behind the wheel. 

Kate burrowed her frown when she noticed it and thought that he might want her to drive. He did look tired and she could guess that he had taken some of his pills. “Do you want me to…” she started asking, but she had not time to finish her line as he gently cupped her face as she approached him and placed his lips on hers, kissing her softly. Noticing her surprise and not wanting to scare her, he quickly broke the kiss. “Just follow my lead, I’ll explain later…” he mumbled as his forehead lightly touched hers, his hands still framing her face. She nodded, closed her eyes and this time it was Kate the one that initiated a new kiss, resting her arms around his waist and inviting him to deepen it. 


End file.
